A Yorkton ambulance provider is beginning to find gaps in service, after scaling back ambulances purely to what’s been contracted with the Saskatchewan Health Authority.
On Aug. 1, Kelly Prime reduced Crestvue Ambulance to three ambulances with two staff members each from four ambulances with three staff members.
This is what is dictated in Crestvue’s contract with the SHA, and Prime said running four ambulances was putting the company in the red.
Since then, Prime has been gathering data to bring a new funding proposal to the SHA once he can show evidence of service gaps.
“We don’t have equal data yet, but we are starting to see some gaps that we are having to pass off more ambulance calls to other services because we don’t have enough resources,” Prime explained.
“We have calls that are in the queue that are having to wait because our ambulances are on other calls, and they are having to rush their care and transport their patients to hospital as quickly and safely as possible — then having to turn around to and respond to other calls.”
The SHA’s director of EMS-central, Krista Reneshylo, said it is a common practice for neighbouring ambulances to pick up calls in other service areas.
She added that the SHA sets out minimum criteria for ambulances in the contracts with independent providers, and it’s up to the operator to determine staffing.
“We’ve offered to work with the operator to more clearly understand the service needs within that service area,” Reneshylo said.
The health authority is requesting long and short term evidence of service gaps, according to Prime. He does not have an end date yet fro when his report will be ready, referencing collective bargaining as his top priority at the moment.
However, he’s beginning to notice some patterns emerging.
In December, Prime said Crestvue had to give 25 calls away to another ambulance service. All of these calls were patient transfers from Yorkton to other hospitals.
Having to bring in neighbouring ambulances means these transfers are delayed, according to Prime, and then the other community has one less ambulance while the transfer takes place.
When the change first came into effect, some Yorkton residents took to social media worried the ambulance service had been cut. Prime said people seem to be accepting of the rationale of the scale back in service, but are cautious.
“I know I am cautious, and it’s not going to happen overnight. We are constantly told by the health authority there’s no money, there’s no money, there’s no money,” Prime said.
“We need those resources to backfill, because our call volume keeps going up, and up, and up.”
In October, Prime said Crestvue saw its highest call volume ever for a single month at 246. That record was broken in December, with 264 calls.
Prior to scaling back ambulance services, Crestvue responded to 218 calls in July, 211 in June and 217 in May.
Currently, Prime’s main focus is the collective bargaining process with the Health Sciences Association, the union representing his employees. Prime hopes to bring his new business plan to the SHA once the bargaining process is complete.
Reneshylo said the SHA is currently reviewing provincial ambulance services, and Crestvue and the Yorkton area aren’t expected to be alone in their additional resource request.
“We have to look at all the needs of the province. We can’t just look at certain areas. We have to look at the whole province and try to address the needs of the entire province with any kind of funding or any kind of proposal that we put forward,” she said.
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