More than 40 paramedics from across the province gathered outside the Alberta legislature Wednesday, calling on the government to better fund front-line care.
“We do not have the resources for the calls,” Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, said.
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Parker described the situation as a “crisis” and said EMS has been under-resourced since 2009, when the province transferred responsibility for ground ambulance services from municipalities to the provincial health authority.
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“When citizens are waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance to show up, that’s too long,” Parker said. “We need to reinvest in our members that are working the streets protecting Albertans because they can’t wait.”
He said the goal of Wednesday’s rally was to bring attention to the issue and lobby all MLAs to talk about EMS resources.
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“As far as resources go, Alberta Health Services controls all the numbers,” Parker said. “What I can say is: it needs to be improved.”
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said she had a “great meeting” with paramedics Wednesday morning.
“They want to ensure that they are continuing to push for greater resources and greater opportunities for investment in paramedic care,” Hoffman said. “We’ve recently invested significantly in ensuring that we have power stretchers and power lifts and I heard from the paramedics that I was speaking with that they’re very grateful for that — they think it’s going to reduce injury and provide better patient care.”
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“I respect their right to speak publicly about a desire to have increased investment,” she said. “We’ll continue to work in partnership with them to support the people of Alberta.”