Suzanne Oel – Division 4
Greetings! Sharing my News Update…
EMS News: On April 10, 2024, Alberta Health Services (AHS) presented an update with Q&A to Foothills County Council regarding performance and initiatives. This can be viewed from 2:06:22 to 2:59:30 on the recording: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8DOm6tDjIY
At this meeting, I shared some additional AHS statistics that draw attention to critical issues regarding EMS service in Foothills County. Some of the content is included here.
First, the number of Incident-Calls in the Priddis area of Foothills County shows the need for the Priddis ambulance to remain in Foothills County rather than being assigned to serve the City of Calgary, predominantly, which is the current practice.
I understand that, according to AHS protocol, Priddis ambulance statistics are cryptically collected by only including the low incident-call volume selected from the small Hamlet of Priddis, to rationalize taking this ambulance elsewhere.
Instead, I note that the Priddis ambulance is positioned well, at our Station next to Hwy 22, to serve a greater geographic area, including the rural residents in west-to-central Foothills County, neighbouring communities, the busy recreation destinations of West Bragg Creek and Kananaskis, plus Diamond Valley.
AHS 2023 incident-call records show that the Priddis rural area generated 375 actual calls over an 8-month timeframe, plus a number for the balance 4 months, unknown to me. In addition to this, the full-year 2023 AHS stats show that there is a potential for the Priddis ambulance to have served: the Priddis Hamlet – with 3 calls, Millarville Hamlet – with 8 calls, Bragg Creek – with 36 calls, Redwood Meadows – with 38 calls, Tsuut’ina Nation – with some of the 1,082 calls, plus, some of the other Foothills County calls. Foothills County stats are categorized into rural and hamlets, for a total of 1,277 incident- calls in 2023. This combined incident- call volume justifies keeping the Priddis ambulance stationed here, full time.
Secondly, there continues to be a reduced service level and risk to Foothills County residents due to absent and shut down ambulance service.
The AHS practice of flexing gives an advantage to the Calgary metro environment. I understand that some of the rosier numbers being reported to us are because AHS moves ambulances around or out of the County, but this leaves the residents of smaller communities and less populated areas without their ambulances, to face the consequences of these service gaps. It is known that AHS relies heavily on using the Priddis and other suburban-rural ambulances to backfill their resources in Calgary during peak times, such as, all main holidays and big events.
A summary of 2023 service hours identifies that the Priddis ambulance day-shift was marked as serving at the Priddis Station for 1,349 of 4,380 hours – the number of hours in a 12-hr shift over one year. That’s the equivalent of 113 shifts out of 365 possible shifts, or 30% of the time that this ambulance was IN the local station area; therefore, showing it was absent 70%.
Calgary hosts up to 52 ambulances, whereas the south suburban-rurals have only a small pool of 9 ambulances to serve a vast area, including 1 from Priddis, 2 from Okotoks, 1 from High River, 1 from Diamond Valley, 1 from Vulcan County, 1 from Nanton, and 2 from Claresholm, … where it’s a stretch to say that some of these regularly serve Foothills County, due to distances and logistics.
I understand that AHS’s current “System Status Management” planning policy allows for the Priddis ambulance to be easily assigned to service in the City of Calgary. I have seen stats that verify this, and also show all 9 south suburban-rural ambulances to have been shut down, well-used for non-urgent transfers, and for backfilling Calgary.
In 2023, the Priddis ambulance tops the shutdown list with an equivalent of 70 shifts, with Okotoks in second. The Vulcan County ambulance tops the transfers list, with Priddis in second with 96 day-shift transfers. The Priddis ambulance tops the list for being directly assigned to Calgary for 748 hours and being moved to other locations during day-shifts, with Okotoks in second place.
As an example, our Council learned about a serious MVC incident that occurred on February 29, 2024, which required 3 ambulances. Priddis and Okotoks ambulances had been moved to Calgary, depleting our ambulance resources, and then the crash took 3 ambulances, …creating a lengthy and inefficient response, putting us at 0% capacity, and a high risk for citizens.
Bottom Line: We request ambulance coverage in Foothills County that increases the level of service and will gain better outcomes for our residents!
Interfacility Transfers Announcement: On April 11, the Alberta Government shared that a new deployment of Interfacility Transfer Units is planned. We are hoping this will help keep ambulances in the County: www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=901380E5785FA-0638-C5D1-5248BD15CD648AE0
For Other News & Updates:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CouncillorSuzanneOel/
Email: Suzanne.Oel@FoothillsCountyAB.ca
With Best Regards,
Suzanne
