Alberta’s only Liberal MLA is calling on the NDP Government to fix a frustrating problem with Paramedics waiting for patient transfers in the hospital.

Calgary-Mountainview MLA David Swann says he has heard from EMS workers for nearly a decade and they seem to be spending too much time waiting for their patients to be attended to in hospitals when they should be responding to calls.

A Liberal MLA wants immediate action to reduce wait times for patient transfers from EMS

“A total time of 650,000 hours in 2016,” says Swann, “waiting for a nurse to receive the transfer of this patient to their care when they should and could be out on the road responding in a more timely way to emergencies.”

Swann would like to see the Province adopt strategies from the UK who dictate that any wait time above 15 minutes is life-threatening and needs to be addressed. Swann says the average wait time now in Alberta is about an hour.

This waiting time for patient transfers is also affecting service times for smaller communities in Alberta.

“Let those EMS folks go and get back out into the community,” says Swann, “so Calgary doesn’t have to draw on Airdrie ambulances. They call in Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks ambulances to deal with their emergencies and leave those communities without appropriate support.”

While the NDP did announce more funding for ambulances and paramedic overtime wages in their budget last month, Swann says throwing more money at the problem is not a viable option.

“The immediate solution is to get the patients up on the ward, yes if they need to be in the hallway, let them be in the hallway up on the ward where people with expertise are trained to monitor and care for them. Don’t leave them in the hallway in the emergency room.”

Other opposition party members have also expressed concerns about EMS wait times including Alberta Party MLA Rick Fraser.

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