BANFF – Ambulance delays across the province due to the current dispatching system are putting added pressure and stress on local fire departments as they tend to patients while waiting for ambulances to arrive.
While a lack of ambulances or lengthy delays do not happen as often in Banff as in neighbouring Canmore or in municipalities closer to Calgary, Town of Banff officials say that Banff is also left without an ambulance on occasion as they respond outside of the region.
“It is a concern from an impact perspective,” said Silvio Adamo, Banff’s fire chief and director of protective services.
“The impact is really that we’re there on scene much longer on our own providing patient care at our basic life support level until the next level of care arrives, which is advanced care paramedic unit.”
Banff Fire Department was first on the scene to a serious head-on collision on Highway 93 South about three kilometres south of Storm Mountain Lodge at about 9 p.m. on Saturday evening (Dec. 18).
Adamo said six ambulances ended up attending the scene to help deal with seven injured patients.
He said the most serious was an eight-year-old child, who was taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary with multiple injuries.
Adamo said one ambulance came from as far away as Priddis, which is about 160 kilometres from the accident site.
“Ambulances were coming from all over … the furthest away was Priddis, followed by Stoney Nakoda. At the end of that evening when Stoney Nakoda arrived on scene there wasn’t a single ambulance available within southern Alberta,” he said.
“We were fortunate to get the resources we needed for that incident to transport the seven patients.”
In fact, firefighters from Banff drove some of the ambulances to Banff Mineral Springs Hospital as well as the injured child to the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
On occasion, Adamo said firefighters drive Banff ambulances when needed so that two technicians can be in the back of the ambulance for patient care during more serious incidents.
“It’s pretty standard operating procedure for us to provide fire drivers,” he said, noting the Banff fire department has a great relationship with Banff EMS operating out of Covenant Health’s Mineral Springs Hospital.
“We want to continue to provide that vital service because we understand the ramifications of taking more units out of service if they have to draw on personnel to operate the vehicle.”
Province-wide, EMS paramedics and other healthcare professionals are advocating for ambulances designated to serve the communities in which they are stationed to remain there instead of being called away to other locations such as Calgary, potentially for the entire day.
Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) current province-wide dispatch system for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) requires the closest ambulance to go on every call, regardless of the priority status of the patient.
For example, ambulances are dispatched to Calgary from both the station they are attached to as well as after clearing a city hospital. Local ambulances are also flexed, which means they are moving from station to station to adjust coverage.
In addition, paramedics are required to stay with a patient at city hospitals until a bed is available to treat the patient – commonly referred to as hallway waits – which can often take hours of time.
This province-wide issue was brought up at the recent annual conference of Alberta Municipalities – formerly known as Alberta Urban Municipalities Association – which resulted in resolutions calling for immediate action by the Alberta government to address the situation.
Banff Councillor Chip Olver said she has serious concerns with the ongoing situation, noting she wants to see ambulance response times returned to more reasonable levels.
She got support from her council colleagues to have administration prepare a report on the current ambulance situation happening in the province with specific impacts on Banff.
“I am less concerned with our firefighters being on scene and the municipal cost of that – I am just so grateful that they’re there and have the skills to be there,” she said.
“I just want us to get everything we can in terms of reports or information or data in order to support the fact that ambulance service in the province needs attention.”
Coun. Olver said she anecdotally heard a report of a patient waiting 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive in the past few weeks.
“I am concerned about degrading levels of service,” she said. “It’s concerning and I want to find a way that we can bring this problem to the attention of the province.”
Adamo added: “I can actually confirm officially that this past summer we did have to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance from out-of-town while we were doing CPR on an individual.”
Coun. Olver replied: “That’s not the service level we want in our community and thank you to the members who were in that situation.”
Councillor Hugh Pettigrew echoed Olver’s concerns, saying that perhaps the Bow Valley at some point should be a separate region.
“Our own community being somewhat deprived from this ambulance services worries me,” he said.
“We’re a community that serves millions of people every year – four million in fact, which is really 5,000 or more per day.”
A citizen action group has formed in the Bow Valley to lobby the province to change the current system that is leaving the busy Bow Valley empty of ambulances several times a week and putting patients’ lives at risk.
The group recently started a Facebook page to raise awareness of the ongoing issue.
On Nov. 18, the Bow Valley was in red alert, with Banff, Canmore and Kananaskis Country having all units responding to an emergency event in Calgary. On Dec. 7, an ambulance from Canmore was dropped from the schedule and shut down due to short-staffing for a single shift.
This ongoing issue is also leading to burnout among paramedics across the province.
The Bow Valley EMS Crisis Citizen Action Group noted on its Facebook page that the community is grateful for the support of volunteer fire departments in Canmore, Banff, Exshaw and Lake Louise, but they do not have the resources for these delays either.
“This is a huge demand for the volunteer fire departments,” states the group on its Facebook page.
On the weekend, Alberta paramedic Mike Hart, who died while on duty, was mourned by his colleagues throughout the province.
The unexpected death of Hart – who used to work with Canmore Fire-Rescue and more recently in town as an advanced care paramedic – was attributed by his colleagues to a lack of ambulances in Airdrie.
Alberta Health Services said on Twitter that “a shortage of resources did not play a factor in the care and treatment our colleague received.”
