Mountain View County deputy reeve Patricia McKean will attend consultation talks this week examining the future of emergency medical services dispatch in rural Alberta.
During the June 26 regularly scheduled council meeting, Coun. McKean agreed to represent MVC at a July 8 meeting in Calgary hosted by Greg Weadick, associate minister for Municipal Affairs.
The province has been conducting consultations to “identify the issues that municipalities may face as Alberta Health Services moves to consolidate EMS dispatch,” CAO Tony Martens told council.
“The consultation will also offer municipalities a chance to raise potential issues regarding medical first responder services often associated with municipal fire departments,” he said.
The sessions are intended as a followup to previous meetings held by the government, the Alberta Urban Municipalities, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, and with the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association.
During the June 26 council meeting, councillors also received a discussion paper prepared by Alberta Municipal Affairs.
The “Impacts of Emergency Medical Service Dispatch Consolidation Consultation” paper 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.
