Local News
Airdrie’s EMS response times still missing the mark
Alberta Health Services (AHS) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) officials who presented to the Community Safety and Social Services Meeting said that there are improvements in ambulance response times but are continuing to struggle to meet the province-wide benchmarks for responses. Response times Data presented to committee members appeared to show that response times in the Metro/Urban areas have improved. "Airdrie fits within the metro/urban response to the targeted 12 minutes that we have currently provincially," said Tony Pasich, the Associate Executive Director for EMS operations in the Calgary zone. "We have seen us be able to move the needle from 21 minutes and 48 seconds down to 12 [minutes] and 47 [seconds]. A bit of an improvement from the last time we presented as well. We continue to work towards getting that under target provincially." Other data subsets showed the 50th and 90th percentile response times, though these only include the most grave of calls and do not account for Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie calls - which has been a topic of debate among councillors at previous meetings. The data not including all call types in the response time calculations was also noted by Airdrie paramedic, Ryan Middleton. Middleton has been vocal for several years about the need for ambulance services to be improved for Airdrie residents and across the province. Before the meeting, Middleton sent an email to committee members outlining his concerns with how the data was being presented. "Of note: all three categories of calls are still above the 12-minute 90th percentile target by AHS EMS sets for Airdrie and other metro areas. Nearly 30 minutes for events without lights and sirens, suggests Airdrie is still being left without any response-capable resources, and the degradation of rural Alpha responses may indicate that additional urban deployment is coming at the expense of areas surrounding these cities." A growing city with stagnant resources Mayor Peter Brown also expressed worry that with Airdrie's population having grown exponentially in the past several years, and with more growth expected this year after the city-wide census is concluded, resource allocation is not keeping pace with population growth. "We had five ambulances committed to 37,000 people. Now, going into 2024; we're soon going to be at 100,000 and we have three. The math doesn't compute to me, especially when call volumes are significantly increasing," he remarked. Middleton also spoke to the committee on Tuesday and was critical of the resource allocation to Airdrie. "It just doesn't seem like a fair shake to me and this is coming as a resident whose wife children, neighbours, and family; live here. They need the services." According to AHS's data, call volume has increased when comparing 2022/2023 to 2023/2024. Mayor Brown pointedly asked AHS officials what the ultimate goal is for AHS. "Our target for Bravo - on lights and sirens response - is eight minutes on the 50th [percentile] and 12 minutes on the 90th percentile. So, 15 [minutes] isn't 12," Pasich replied. Other statistics presented included an infographic on the number of resources Airdrie has. Middleton wrote that the statistics should be clarified, as Airdrie does not have two inter-facility transfer units (IFT), it has one. This was also a topic of discussion last fall when both Councillor Ron Chapman and Deputy Mayor Al Jones asked for clarification on how the units were depicted. It was explained to council in 2023 that there is only one IFT unit that works in two shifts, 16 hours a day. Morale of paramedics addressed "I hope whatever you guys are trying to achieve, you are incorporating them [first responders] in the conversation... And their words mean something to you," Mayor Brown said when discussing the morale of frontline workers. "They're the ones that are meeting us when we need them the most." Pasich said that when it comes to the needs of staff, it is not a simple answer, adding that the hospital hallway wait times do weigh heavily on paramedics. "When we don't have unit availability and they have delayed responses - they take that personally, and it wears on them in their community," Pasich said. "Because we can have all those back-end supports that we have, but if we're creating all the moral injury and all those pieces in our response, it's still not going to be helpful." The question of current and future placement of EMS stations in Airdrie Pasich explained that as part of the beginning of their five-year planning, there are questions surrounding where EMS stations are in Airdrie and how that impacts response times. "One of our challenges - you mentioned you're building a [fire] station to help with response times; the current location in Airdrie of the stations, for us, don't help us achieve our response times," he added. "Right now, we have two stations, and we could say where's the next third station [going to go?]. If we had the right location, we could improve our response times by actually moving to a single station." Airdrie Fire Chief, Mike Pirie, who also addressed the committee, noted that the concerns around EMS station locations were sensible, though he said that previous AHS EMS representatives were not always keen on the idea. He added that such a conversation and subsequent planning will not benefit short-term solutions but should be considered as a long-term planning initiative. "What we're working on right now is where do the future stations go [and] how do we incorporate that into a planning process," he said. "If I could summarize that in the short term, it's not going to help us but in the long term, yes, we need to do planning around where our facilities go and incorporate it right from the very beginning." Councillor Candice Kolson expressed frustration at the issue, saying that in her time on council, there have been many changes with decisions surrounding EMS stationing. "I've been a part of some of the shifts with EMS leaving our stations and coming into our stations and the shuffles, but we always plan with [that in] mind that we're going to co-locate and I get that your predecessors were not open to some of those conversations, there wasn't money in the budgets for you guys do that. But even now, we can accommodate, so is that a conversation then that you have had with the city that you are looking for a location to improve?" Pasich said that it is a conversation that still must be had, but Councillor Kolson remarked that the discussions feel reactionary. "... Playing catch up constantly is incredibly frustrating for me at this table. I just can't believe what I just heard." Mayor Brown queried if there was a parcel of land to build a station, and what the timeframe would be, to which Pasich said there is no current timeline as the government would have to commit to funding, though he did say that the budget for 2025 is currently being looked at and he said that Airdrie is 'in the mix' within the five-year plan. "I would love to see that ask for Airdrie every year so that we can document it," Councillor Kolson added. What else can the city do to advocate? Mayor Brown asked what else the city can do to advocate on behalf of Airdrie, asking which top three priorities within the emergency medical system are something that municipalities can advocate for. In his response, Chief Pirie said that the current system status management must be overhauled. "We have to stop chasing statistics and start looking at people and that's going to be tough because the whole system is predicated on the notion that you can do more with less and I think at this point, we have to recognize there is no such thing as doing more with less," Pasich added. "It's been overused because of lack of resources. I am not opposed to system status management. We have the right resources in the community. Pasich underlined that even he feels that systems status management was meant to be triggered for large-scale events, and not a way for EMS to function on a day-to-day basis. "The practice before the world of system status management was [the] mutual aid agreement. We moved to system status management; because of our lack of investment over the years system status management became a way to survive. " Chief Pirie, noted however, that he is encouraged to hear that there is a change in approach to staff well-being, which must continue to be geared towards addressing not only physical health but also the mental well-being of paramedics. "Vacancies in EMS trickle down to municipalities. It's always in our best interest to advocate for strong mental health, physical health, and well-being support, and I'm starting to hear that from leaders such as the health minister." The Fire Chief said that one of the biggest issues is paramedics waiting in hospital hallways. "When you're not in a hallway, you're available to do a response. That is the bottom line. When the system is kicked, it responds and just doesn't stay." Pasich stated that the best way the municipality can lobby is to encourage sustained capital funding. "In our system, we do not have sustained capital funding; we get behind and then there's this mass urgency to order 180 ambulances." However, during his remarks, Middleton expressed frustration. "... It seems like you are throwing the ball to the Airdrie city council, to be the provincial health care service in their own city," Middleton said. "They keep asking you every six months when you show up 'what can we do to help?" and every recommendation is [for them to be] managers of EMS. You want them to tell you how many resources they should have, and then let them do it when you say it cannot happen. It's not their job to manage EMS, it's yours." Pasic responded by saying that they do not expect the City to execute the planning. "We [AHS] know the planning. We know the numbers, we know exactly, in the sense of our modelling tool, what our current state is, [and] we know when we need to add resources. We advocate up through Alberta Health Services in our management chain." The presentation to council came on the same day that the province announced the Health Statutes Amendment Act. If passed, the bill would, 'will enable the transition from one regional health authority, Alberta Health Services, to an integrated system of four sector-based provincial health agencies including primary care, acute care, continuing care and mental health and addiction.' Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@discoverairdrie.com. You can also message and follow us on Twitter: @AIR1061FM DiscoverAirdrie encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the DiscoverAirdrie app. For breaking news, weather and contest alerts click here