If there was ever any doubt about ambulance service in St. Albert being in worse shape today than two years ago, an eye-popping 40-minute emergency response to a local health club put it to rest. That appalling delay painted such a crystal-clear picture about system flaws even Alberta Health Services (AHS) took notice. On Thursday the health authority relented to St. Albert’s demands for a third ambulance after months of poking, prodding and, in the end, near kicking and screaming from city hall.
AHS has agreed to fund a third full-time ambulance in St. Albert on a temporary basis until a longer-term strategy can be hashed out. The unit will be on the road in the coming days, AHS officials promise, however no details have been released about the cost. More questions remain about who will run the ambulance, given the city, which operates two full-time ambulances on contract with the province, does not have the staff in place to immediately accommodate a third 24/7 ambulance into its scheduling rotation.
The fact that the province has recognized ambulance response times are unacceptable to the point public safety is at risk is a testament to the strong lobbying efforts made by Mayor Nolan Crouse and council on behalf of St. Albertans. Crouse hasn’t been shy with his displeasure ever since the province took over ground ambulance operations from municipalities in March 2009. The changeover essentially threw away an efficient model of integrated EMS/fire service delivery that saw the city run two full-time ambulances with a third and fourth on standby, operated as needed by cross-trained firefighter-paramedics. After the takeover, which St. Albert resisted tooth and nail, the city was reduced to just two ambulances and no longer had the flexibility to backfill as before. That means when local ambulances are busy, calls are routed to units from municipalities like Edmonton and Spruce Grove.
Crouse ramped up the pressure on AHS shortly after response time data showed the new centralized approach to ambulance service was a flop. In February statistics showed Edmonton-based ambulances respond to St. Albert calls within 22 minutes, five seconds, 90 per cent of the time — light years off the city’s historic target of nine minutes, 90 per cent of the time. AHS officials at the time lamely offered the city’s standard was “antiquated.” Astonishingly, refuting the standards while ignoring the problem hasn’t made it go away, as chiefly illustrated by the 40-minute delay responding to a woman with stroke-like symptoms at the Sturgeon Valley Athletic Club. This poor response led to an all-out assault by Crouse, who took up the issue with 10 people at AHS and Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky.
St. Albert’s unwavering stance on the ambulance issue these past two years underscores the importance of local representation from people with actual working knowledge of local service delivery. Centralization might offer more consistent service province-wide, but it’s failed on several fronts to prove it’s safer, more efficient or even accountable compared to what St. Albert lost. Response times skyrocketed and reporting data has dwindled these past two years to the point where even city council had to pull teeth to take a look at the numbers. More red tape means AHS will review whether the city actually runs a tight ship: “Obviously we need to do our due diligence in being stewards of public dollars,” said one AHS official. Not only is this father-knows-best approach belittling to local service providers, it’s extremely ironic coming from an organization that’s not only mounted billion-dollar deficits, it’s suffered one blunder after another since the health superboard was created several years ago. Public dollars need to be safeguarded, but it shouldn’t take two years to protect public safety.
