Mr. Martin Dunne:

On-duty is a 24-7-365 service in which one works a 12-hour shift. On-call refers to someone who goes home, say, at six in the evening and remains on second-call; if he or she is required, he or she is called in to respond. We have been reviewing that across the country. This actually elongates the response times as the person has to come from his or her home first. We could also be putting our staff in a dangerous situation because they have to get from their homes to the ambulance stations. We have actually stopped using this system except in some areas in the west.