CALGARY – Alberta Health Services data obtained by Global News through a freedom of information (FOIP) request has revealed ambulance response times to life-threatening emergency calls were longer than nine minutes over 30 per cent of the time between July 1 and December 31, 2014.
Global News requested response times for all “echo” level calls within both the Calgary and Edmonton zones. According to dispatch protocol, calls are designated “echo” level if a patient is experiencing an allergic reaction, having trouble breathing, in cardiac arrest, choking, being electrocuted or if they are unconscious.
The AHS data shows EMS responded to 886 echo level calls between July 1 and December 31, 2014: 406 in Calgary and 480 in Edmonton.
READ MORE: Code Red – FOIP requests reveal Alberta code red alerts on the rise
In Calgary, 126 calls had a response time over nine minutes, 24 calls took longer than 15 minutes and three took longer than 30 minutes. The longest response time recorded was 33 minutes and 48 seconds.
In Edmonton, 157 calls were responded to in over nine minutes, 25 in over 15 minutes and one in over 30 minutes. That response time was recorded as 35 minutes and 31 seconds.
Under Alberta Health Services, there are no benchmarks for response times, but when EMS was delivered by Alberta’s major cities, Calgary EMS had a response time benchmark of eight minutes and Edmonton had a benchmark of nine minutes. According to city of Calgary data, this benchmark was hit 78 per cent of the time in 2009.
AHS chief paramedic Darren Sandbeck says overall response times across the province have been stable since AHS took over operation in 2009.
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“As a general trend, we see that call responses are remaining consistent,” he said. “There will always be outliers in every call type, and that’s just the reality.”
Sandbeck says longer response times typically occur when a call is made from a suburban or rural area within the Calgary or Edmonton zone.
“In our suburban/rural operation in Calgary and Edmonton, every call over 15 minutes is investigated, and in our metro area every day our longest 10 response times are reviewed.”
During Global Alberta’s special series Code Red, four paramedics–including George Porter–spoke out about rising ambulance response times in the province. In an interview with Global News Thursday, Porter said any time echo level patients wait longer than 10 minutes, their lives are at risk.
“You’ve got four to six minutes before you start suffering irreparable brain damage,” he said. “Good quality CPR will lengthen that time, but typically the person doing CPR is one of your family members and they are distressed.”
Sandbeck says EMS continues to be challenged by long waits within hospital emergency departments, but AHS is working on ways to improve the system.
“We’re in conversations constantly about resources and the need for additional resources and so those conversations are going on all the time.”
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Editor’s note: This story has been corrected from its original version to say Calgary EMS had a response time benchmark of eight minutes (not seven minutes) prior to AHS taking over emergency services.
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