Mountain View County deputy reeve Patricia McKean has attended consultation talks examining the future of emergency medical services dispatch in rural Alberta.
On July 8 McKean and MVC director of legislative services Jeff Holmes attended a meeting in Calgary hosted by Greg Weadick, Alberta associate minister for Municipal Affairs.
During the July 10 council meeting, McKean gave a verbal report on the meeting.
“There were a lot of people present at the meeting, from municipal representatives to fire chiefs,” said McKean. “So they went around the table and asked what their main concerns were. One of the main concerns was flexing of rural ambulances to the cities for transports and appointments and such, leaving a lack of ambulances within the communities.
“The other one was the time put on our volunteer fire services having to provide EMT (emergency medical technician) service.”
Another concern raised was firefighters having to be responsible for directing traffic at accident scenes and conducting cleanup following crashes, she said.
“It shouldn't fall under their responsibility, but it slowly has,” she said.
For her part, McKean asked the associate minister: “What level of volunteer firefighter training are they (government) expecting? Is it EMR (emergency medical responder)? Is it EMT (emergency medical technician)?”
“There really wasn't a definite answer to that,” she said.
Also during the meeting associate minister Weadick said one of his recommendations to the minister might be that municipalities use Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding to pay for volunteer firefighter training.
In response, McKean told Weadick, “I would hope that won't be a recommendation, because the province is downloading everything and thinks MSI is the answer, but there is no more money in MSI. It's the same pot we are trying to get everything out of.”
The province has been conducting consultations with the Alberta Urban Municipalities, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, with the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association and others, to “identify the issues that municipalities may face as Alberta Health Services moves to consolidate EMS dispatch.”
The consultations have been focusing on the “Impacts of Emergency Medical Service Dispatch Consolidation Consultation” paper, which outlines the four key themes of the consultation process: training and workload for the fire service providing medical first response; technology, communications and information management; 911 viability; and the need for stakeholder engagement by Alberta Health Services and by government.
Prior consultations have identified a number of areas of concern with the current EMS dispatch system, including:
• Concern that medical services are being off-loaded onto municipalities through medical first response.
• Municipalities that do offer medical first response services often bear significant costs, including training and the provision of equipment and consumables.
• There is a need to recognize the strain on fire service personnel, especially those providing medical first response.
• Rural municipalities feel recruiting volunteers to the fire service greatly hinders their ability to provide medical first response and that adding more training does not adequately address that need.
• Wait times in emergency rooms are putting pressure on municipalities to provide medical first response, and that more ambulances could be active in communities if wait times were addressed.
During the July 10 meeting, Reeve Bruce Beattie said he hopes the consultations will result in meaningful progress.
