Province working to ease pressure on EMS resources
By Lethbridge Herald on May 26, 2022.
Herald photo
An EMS crew exits an ambulance after backing into a bay Thursday at the downtown Fire Headquarters Station 1.Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Minister of Health Jason Copping spoke to the media Thursday about what the province is doing to help decrease the EMS response times and to ease the pressure on EMS and other resources.
Minister Copping thanked all paramedics and EMS workers across the province for their dedication, compassion and commitment to providing the best care for Albertans.
“I’m very aware that EMS workers around Alberta have been working tirelessly to respond to the surge in call volumes we’ve seen since last August COVID-19 has driven up calls and added to delays in offloading in hospitals, because frankly emergency is extremely busy a lot of the time,” said Copping.
He said he is aware of how tired everyone is and how EMS personnel are doing everything they can.
“You want and need help. We have heard you and we’re working to support you to help ease EMS pressures and improve response times, because that’s the bottom line response times have gotten too long we need to get them back down to within AHS targets,” said Copping.
He said that is easy to say but not easy to do and he is aware of that.
“COVID has disrupted the healthcare everywhere to an incredible extent… call volumes and response times have spiked in recent months on top of the surge over the past year,” said Copping.
He said they cannot wait for the current wave of COVID to pass as they need to add capacity as fast as they can and they have started.
“First, AHS is hiring more paramedics and boosting EMS staffing. They’re moving quickly to hire into 100 full-time permanent EMS positions and extending 70 temporary positions,” said Copping.
He said that is on top of the increase of 230 EMS staff from the past two years.
Copping said he was pleased to announce another practical step to increase the pool of available EMS staff and keep more ambulances on the road by easing staffing requirements.
“I’m granting a one-year exemption to allow Emergency Medical Responders (EMR) to staff more types of ambulances. EMRs are one of three classes of EMS practitioners registered with the Alberta College of paramedics,” said Copping.
He said this staffing change will allow two emergency medical responders to transfer stable patients without the need for a higher-level paramedic.
“That’s only in non-emergency transfers. This move will free up other paramedics to respond to more urgent calls,” said Copping.
He added that when no other option is available an EMR can now join an advanced care or primary care paramedic to respond to urgent calls and this will improve coverage and response times especially in rural communities where staff fatigue and staffing challenges can be more acute.
“I approve this temporary staffing exemption based on a request from AHS and a recommendation from the provincial EMS advisory committee that changes in line with other provinces including BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba,” said Copping.
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For our Lethbridge situation maybe stop picking-up junkies that over-dose multiple times in one day! They obviously want to end their life’s so to simplifie things…LET THEM DO IT! Big savings to be made there!
Unfortunately, my Mom had to recently visit the ER. She arrived in an ambulance. I admit the ER was busy at the time, however I was astounded to watch what looked like some minor issues getting in ahead of her WHILE THE AMBULANCE WAS TIED UP FOR OVER 3 HOURS waiting to pass her off to hospital staff. I understand there are triage protocols in the ER, but some common sense dictates that during times of ambulance shortages, priority must be given to ensure that ambulances are back on the road as soon as possible to serve critical cases.
There is little doubt that a doctor shortage in Lethbridge is contributing to the need for people to visit the ER for something as simple as a prescription. I observed many of the people who were triaged ahead of my Mom leaving with a prescription in hand, while the ambulance crew was tied up. No blame on anyone who can’t get a doctor and needs a prescription, just my observations.
A BIG THANK YOU goes out to all of our hard working EMT’s and hospital staff. You are appreciated.
Oh, and HI MOM! Love You!
Words mean nothing! Actions mean evertyhing!
It was the UCP’s mismanagement that caused much of these issues, not COVID!
The UCP angered and belittled doctors and nurses and failed to listen to those who are the boots on the ground in both the healthcare and EMS situations! Fire/EMS warned that the centralization of dispatch would further stress the already stressed system. You should have hired the needed paramedics then, but you decided to listen to the accountants who said you would save $6 million, which has turned into losses of many times more and lives lost and peoples lifes impacted for life due to long waits for EMS responses. Correct me if I am wrong, but several months ago wasn’t it a AHS administration member or government member that died of a heart attack due to a long wait for EMS to respond? Many other lives were lost across the province and it isn’t the EMS’s fault, but yours!
In a short few years in power you managed me to destroy our EMS and healthcare that took years to rebuild after previous cuts and pushing our doctors and nurses out to other provinces or countries such as the US!
There is nothing you can say to make things better! Get those people hired/trained and return EMS dispatch to the communities they should be in!
Your brainfart lost over $6 million alone with the added wear and tear on EMS equipment being run all over the province instead remaining local, for the most part!
Why do we send EMS/Fire out to overdoses where further medical treatment is refused after administering Narcan/Naloxone? There are multiple times each day EMS and a fire apparatus are sent as support for EMS in this city!
We should have a special overdose unit that doesn’t require all of the training in trauma and emergency medicine a paramedic needs responding with a minivan or some other cost effective vehicle, even a motorcyce for summer, to arrive and assess whether EMS is needed after administering Narcan/Naloxone! I would estimate that less than 1 in 200 actually accept further treatment and requipe transport to hospital, but even a minivan could transport them! We have people all over this city packing Narcon/Naloxone who often administer it to their fellow addicts, as well as other front line workers. Alpha House administers these lifesaving drugs everyday, and people are not transported to hospital!
We can do this better and overdose responses alone would dramatically improve EMS availability issues!
Why is it that we can see this, but you fail to admit or acknowledge it is possible? We could see immediate and dramatic results, tangible results instead of running heavy vehicles through intersections and around corners, tearing up epuipment just to see some addict refuse further treatment and walk away!