A former EMS worker got in contact with Air 106.1 to discuss the current code red crisis Airdrie and the province are facing. 

The EMS Code Red Crisis arose again after an Airdrie woman waited an hour and a half for EMS to respond to her call where she sustained two broken legs.

George Porter has worked as a paramedic for 43 years. He also taught at SAIT and NAIT and helped develop the curriculum.  Porter says the system is flawed, and part of the struggle for EMS workers is that once they enter a hospital with their patients they are attending to them while waiting for hospital services. 

"You can go to any hospital in Calgary and never will you not see a bunch of ambulances there and medics tied up in hallways trying to offload the patients."

Porter says that due to the lack of EMS and hospital workers it takes the first responders out of the field and keeps them in the hospital where they can't do their jobs.

 "Its frustrating for medics because they know that no one is available to respond to these calls in the whole city and here you are babysitting a patient in the hallway and you're forced not to be able to do your job and not be able to respond."   

Porter also says there have been instances where the shortages of ambulances have been so bad that every rural and small-town ambulance within the vicinity of Calgary was attending Calgary calls.

"What nobody talks about is the surrounding towns and rural Alberta, Calgary was in code red but at the same time, High River, Okotoks, Black Diamond, Cochrane, Airdrie, and Chestermere were all in the city responding to calls."

Porter believes that changes need to be made and that it is the government's responsibility to make those changes. 

"Until we can get control of how EMS operates we don't know what we need and the government needs to do more to fix these problems regardless of which party is in power." 

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