City renews agreement with AHS to deliver EMS through Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services

The City of Lethbridge has renewed its master service agreement with Alberta Health Services to deliver emergency medical services through Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services.

LETHBRIDGE -

The City of Lethbridge has renewed its master service agreement with Alberta Health Services (AHS) to deliver emergency medical services (EMS) through Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services (LFES).

"In 2009, when we entered our first contract with Alberta Health Services, we provided 9,300 EMS calls annually," said LFES chief Greg Adair.

"We are now responding to 26,000 EMS calls annually... so we continue to get busier and busier."

LFES has signed a new two-and-a-half-year agreement with AHS to deliver EMS through the fire department, with the possibility of extending it to five years.

"Lethbridge emergency services provides 10 ambulances at peak times during the day for the citizens of Lethbridge and during the evenings and nights, we go down to as few as four ambulances," Adair said.

Adair says more ambulances have continued to be added to the fleet, including last year when two more rolled into service.

He says all ambulances are at the advanced-care paramedic level.

Along with the new contract, the fire department is actively looking at ways to enhance operational efficiency and service delivery.

"We look at placement of ambulances throughout the city," Adair said.

"So, we're continually reviewing where calls are occurring, where our ambulances are located and how we can actually and effectively meet the call volume."

The city says the renewed agreement will also help reduce the tax-supported dollars needed to operate the EMS component of LFES.

Adair says while the contract was set to end on March 31, there will be no disruption in service when changing over to the new agreement.