St. Albert is getting a third ambulance.
Alberta Health Services and the city reached an agreement Wednesday evening that will put a third full-time ambulance on city streets.
Mayor Nolan Crouse has been lobbying for the additional resource after receiving reports of long wait times for backup response from Edmonton and other surrounding communities.
The third ambulance will be on the road in the “coming days” said Sheila Rougeau, a spokesperson for AHS.
“This is an interim measure that will be done as soon as possible while we complete the operational review that will make a final decision,” Rougeau said.
The city formally asked AHS on Feb. 24 to alter its service contract to put another ambulance on St. Albert streets. AHS is still working on that request but the interim ambulance will remain in place until it makes a decision, Rougeau said.
The decision to provide the interim ambulance was prompted by a complaint of a long wait for an ambulance to respond to the Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club in St. Albert last week. Club manager Christine Rasmussen said it took 40 minutes for the ambulance to arrive to a call placed at 5:40 p.m. last Wednesday, March 16, while AHS says it took 23 minutes.
Staff called the ambulance after noticing that patron Jan Moran was showing symptoms of a stroke after removing herself from a group exercise class, Rasmussen said.
Staff placed two 911 calls, 20 minutes apart, and the ambulance arrived 20 minutes after the second call, Rasmussen said.
Moran, a retired teacher, only learned of the long response when she was in the University of Alberta Hospital.
“My blood pressure, which was quite high at that point, went even higher,” she said. “I was very, very upset about this 40 minutes and so was my family.”
“I’m just so lucky that it was not serious,” she added.
Moran’s condition wasn’t a stroke and she’s now OK. She declined to provide details about what happened.
But she said she’s happy with the decision to provide a third ambulance for St. Albert.
“I think it’s absolutely great,” she said. “It’s really good news.
AHS is still investigating the response to the athletic club, Rougeau said.
“A large part of this review is going to focus on that time in between the two calls,” Rougeau said. “It is of concern to us.”
Emergency calls go to the 911 dispatch centre, which forwards ambulance requests to the EMS dispatch centre, Rougeau said.
The province took over ambulance service in April 2009. Before that St. Albert operated its own ambulances, with two on duty at all times and the capacity to add a third and fourth when needed. Now the city provides two ambulances on contract to the province.
If a call comes in while those two are occupied, relief comes from Edmonton or other communities in the region. St. Albert’s ambulances also provide relief throughout the region. This will continue to be the case for the third ambulance.
AHS figures released earlier this year showed that Edmonton-based ambulances responding to calls in St. Albert arrive within a time of 22:05, 90 per cent of the time.
Crouse has openly criticized the long waits and has publicly demanded the province fund a third full-time ambulance.
AHS will find extra resources within the existing system to provide the ambulance and staff it, said Trevor Maslyk, executive director of operations for the north/Edmonton zone.
Crouse said he was happy to see the province moving forward on the issue.
“I’m pleased. We’ve made progress,” he said.
At this time there’s no information about the cost of providing the third ambulance, Rougeau said.
