CALGARY – In the small, southern Alberta town of Nanton, two ambulances are standing by. One is owned and operated by Alberta Health Services but the second was purchased by the local municipal district.
“We weren’t getting what we considered historical response times in our municipality,” explains Neil Wilson, Reeve for the MD of Willow Creek.
“AHS was being challenged with service levels.”
When AHS took over provincial ambulance services in 2009, Wilson says the community felt underserviced. They requested additional resources from the province but eventually decided to purchase three ambulances of their own. One is kept in Nanton, another in Claresholm and a third sits in Fort Macleod.
Buying and staffing the new units has been expensive, but Wilson feels the investment has saved lives.
But AHS disagrees.
“It is not necessary, in my opinion,” says Darren Sandbeck, chief paramedic for AHS. “This is a provincial system and we are responsible for the province.”
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Although several paramedics have raised concerns that an overburdened system is impacting patient care, AHS does not believe ambulance services are in crisis. Sandbeck says response times are stable and patient satisfaction levels are high.
“Patients are not being put at risk,” says Sandbeck. “In fact, our patient satisfaction surveys tell us that 96 per cent of the patients we’re seeing are satisfied with the care they’ve received, including response times.”
The union representing paramedics in Alberta says those on the front lines are not happy. Last fall, 81 per cent of paramedics surveyed reported low morale.
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“Paramedics across the province, in Edmonton and Calgary particularly, have been concerned about their ability to meet response times in the community,” says Elisabeth Ballerman, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.
“We have capacity problems in this system and it’s with every part of the system.”
Alberta’s health minister says he’s aware the province’s EMS workers are feeling the pressure and believes the solutions start at the hospitals.
“In my mind, our number one has to be to create acute care beds by dealing with the needs for long-term care beds to be able to move people through a system,” says Stephen Mandel.
Mandel says a better system for patient transfers may also be necessary. AHS is also planning to begin consultations with its front line workers to better understand the system’s demands.
Veteran paramedic George Porter believes the time for talk has passed. For five years he says he’s warned officials the system was in trouble. Now he believes for the sake of patients, someone needs to act.
“True emergencies are time dependent; strokes, heart attacks, acute respiratory problems, acute diabetic problems…. But for somebody, EMS management, to have not stood up and dealt with this before now? It’s criminal.”
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