Lethbridge fire department union concerned over lack of available ambulances

Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services says new measures being taken by Alberta Health Services (AHS) to improve ambulance response times are a beneficial step forward after the International Association of Firefighter’s Local 237, which represents firefighters and paramedics in Lethbridge, said no ambulances were available to respond several times last week.

Fire Chief Greg Adair says there’s a number of reasons that are impacting call volumes.

“We’re still working through the COVID pieces, we're still working through our opioid crisis and overall we're just having more and more call volumes – EMS related,” said Fire Chief Greg Adair.

In a tweet on Saturday, the International Association of Firefighter’s Local 237, which represents firefighters and paramedics in Lethbridge, said "over the past few days we have seen situations where no physical ambulance is available to respond."

"We have seen our closest ambulance responding from rural communities over 30 minutes away," the union said.

“Alberta Health Services has created a system status management system provincially, which means that the next closest, most available resource will be dispatched to that call,” Adair said. “So, if that ambulance is 30 minutes away, it'll be dispatched.”

But that lag hasn't been catastrophic yet.

Officials say target response times for life-threatening events haven't been impacted in most cases.

According to AHS, the specific target response time in Lethbridge is within eight to 12 minutes, which, up until October, had been met. 

In a statement to CTV News, AHS says, “Centralized dispatch allows better coordination and management of all provincial ambulance resources and allows AHS to ensure ambulances can respond across any municipal borders. EMS is managing existing EMS resources carefully to ensure those most in need of emergency medical services are being prioritized for immediate care.”

“AHS is also coordinating with hospitals and urgent care centres to ensure paramedics, whether they are with AHS EMS or Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services, are able to transfer the care of their patient to hospital staff as soon as possible,” the statement read.

The Alberta government says they’re glad to see response times are within the targets, but say more work needs to be done to shorten them.

"In Lethbridge in particular the system is delivering a high standard of service overall but we can do better, and there are always situations where the outcomes are not what we want,” said Steve Buick, press secretary for Alberta Health Minister Jason Cooping in a statement.

“So we’ll keep adding resources and responding to any concerns our partners bring forward."

In December, the Alberta government said it would provide alternative transportation such as community shuttles and taxis, to help improve ambulance wait times.

The province says the program is for patients who do not require medical support during transport and are able to care for themselves on the way, including patients who are cleared to be transferred or discharged from a facility or acute care.

Adair believes this change will help ease the pressure on paramedics.

“I’m optimistic that we'll see a better response throughout Lethbridge and the province over the next couple of months, hopefully AHS will be able to implement some of these positive changes,” Adair said.