Nearly 21 per cent of the time, an Alberta Health Services (AHS) ambulance is unavailable in Olds because it's already responding to a call outside of town.
That's one of the statistics quoted by Lyle McKellar, AHS associate executive director, clinical EMS (Emergency Medical Services) operations, central zone.
McKellar cited that stat -- and others -- during Olds council's policies and priorities meeting on Sept. 17. Statistics quoted cover the period from July 31, 2017 to Aug. 1 this year.
“By no ambulance being available that simply means that it’s committed to an event; you may still have an ambulance in Olds, but it’s committed,” said McKellar.
From July 31, 2017 to Aug. 1 this year, Olds EMS responded to a total of 2,225 events, 1,164 of which were in Olds. Other EMS units coming from outside of Olds responded to the remaining 684 events.
Council was told that 70.6 per cent of the time, an ambulance based in Olds is available to serve the community. When it is not, it's because it is doing something like transferring a patient to Calgary.
However, after a patient transfer is completed, that ambulance doesn’t necessarily become available to Olds again as it could be dispatched out somewhere in Calgary.
Town officials wanted to know the number of life-threatening calls within Olds that would require two or more EMS units to be dispatched in the town or surrounding area. That accounts for about 12 per cent of calls received.
“We didn’t break this down specific to the Town of Olds because we don’t drill that far but we do know that the Olds EMS activity responded to 223 events,” McKellar said.
Town officials were also told that 42 per cent of the uses of Olds-based ambulances are for emergent or non-emergent hospital transfers.
