There were no minced words by the mayors of Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge and Wood Buffalo.
Upset with Minister of Health Tyler Shandro’s decision to move ahead with consolidating EMS dispatch without fair consultation, the mayors vowed Tuesday to keep fighting. They will meet with MLAs this week and hope premier Jason Kenney will address their concerns immediately.
“Minister Shandro’s decision to override local concerns and not intervene is perhaps one of the single most impactful and egregious decisions that I have witnessed in my 16 years in local government,” said Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer.
“This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue of life and death.”
The communities, which are served by integrated municipal ambulance dispatch, will move to three consolidated Alberta Health Services emergency communications centres in Peace River, Edmonton and Calgary on Jan. 4.
Shandro wrote to the mayors Friday, outlining the government’s decision to move forward with consolidation. He last met with the group on Sept. 24.
“My decision is to not overturn AHS’ decision and I look forward to supporting them and your municipalities during the transition to ensure that emergency health services in your community can improve,” he wrote.
Veer said Shandro’s decision overlooked many of the key points the group of mayors have brought up for weeks and that they’ll keep fighting for their communities. She noted that AHS consolidated call centres could see an increase of up to 200,000 calls per year.
“It is slower, it risks calls being dropped and will result in emergency vehicles being delayed,” Veer explained.
The rest of the province was switched to AHS dispatch in 2009 and following recommendations of the Health Quality Council of Alberta in 2013, as well as the AHS Performance Review by Ernst and Young last year, the decision was made to end the current EMS dispatch system for the affected municipalities.
Red Deer was notified in August that the province planned to end local dispatch and has since launched a campaign along with the other communities to battle against consolidation.
In September, Veer said Red Deer’s current model was regarded nationally and internationally for its “efficiency and most importantly, patient-first approach”. She reiterated that call Tuesday.
According to the city, Red Deer’s accredited 911 Emergency Communications Centre currently dispatches emergency ambulance services 18-21 seconds faster than the AHS emergency communications centre in Edmonton. Last quarter, the AHS communications centre averaged a dispatch time of 90 seconds, while Red Deer averaged 65 seconds. Veer said there was a case just this past Thanksgiving weekend when an advanced life support fire unit waited four minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
“We know the longer it takes for an ambulance to be dispatched, the worse it is for patient outcomes, especially in life and death circumstances, where seconds are absolutely critical,” Said Veer, adding that in most cases, AHS doesn’t reach its own 90-second standard response time.
In the letter, Shandro also addressed some of the concerns of the communities, including previous decisions to overturn consolidation and medical first response.
“The claim that safety and efficiency require all dispatchers to be in the same room is out of date; it ignores how ambulance services have evolved across Canada and in other countries,” Shandro wrote to the four municipalities.
“Today’s Computer-Assisted Dispatch technology allows multiple services to be coordinated seamlessly regardless of where the dispatchers physically sit or who employs them.”
On four occasions in the past, health ministers have overturned the AHS decision to consolidate the four municipalities, but the health minister did not see the need to do so this time around.
Shandro also pointed out that the decision wasn’t budget-related, but is expected to save the province $6.2 million per year.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi noted Tuesday that Alberta’s Chief Paramedic Darren Sandback will address concerns at a council meeting in the city on Nov. 2.
As for the next steps, Lethbridge mayor Chris Spearman suggested that a third-party review could help the government see the issue from the perspective of the four municipalities.
EMS response times will be longer than those currently provided by local dispatching, Mayor Tara Veer fears.
