By Chris Brown

Will use community shuttles, taxis

Province to use alternative transportation to free up ambulances, paramedics

Dec 21, 2022 | 11:15 AM

Alberta’s government hopes providing alternative transportation for non-clinical patients will help improve ambulance wait times and free up acute care beds more quickly for people waiting in emergency departments.

Health Minister Jason Copping says ambulances and highly-trained paramedics will be freed up to respond to emergencies and highly-urgent calls.

“We need more paramedics and ambulances and we need to free up the ones we have right now,” he said, noting a sustained increase in 911 calls is being seen. “On top of that, emergency departments are seeing high volumes of very sick patients, so paramedics are waiting longer in emergency.”

He says the fact is response times are too long and they need to be brought back down.

Copping said the median response time in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge is below the eight-minute target. It’s a bit above the target in Edmonton, but Calgary is still a struggle, he said.

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The province says the program is for patients who do not require medical support during transport and are able to care for themselves on the way, including patients who are cleared to be transferred or discharged from a facility or acute care.

Alternative transportation includes community shuttles, wheelchair-accessible taxis and other locally available options. Each zone will have a list of providers that would be available to all hospitals. AHS will cover the cost of transportation for patients who are financially unable to do so.

Alberta Health Services official administrator Dr. John Cowell says he first became aware of the need for non-ambulance transfer when discussing situations in the Medicine Hat area.

“There’s no doubt this kind of option is going to be wonderful to relieve that kind of pressure in the emergency departments,” says Cowell, who was appointed as the official administrator of AHS after the governing board was fired last month.

According to the government, AHS expects that 15 per cent of transports will be diverted from emergency medical services, which means that paramedics could respond to about 70 more transports per day once this program is implemented across the province.

The program will be rapidly implemented across the province. Further consultation with patients, families, Indigenous partners and continuing care partners will take place to ensure local solutions are available and put in place quickly.

Opposition NDP health critic David Shepherd says he doesn’t expect the announcement to help the ongoing crisis in the health-care system, which also includes staffing shortages, long surgical wait times and overcrowded emergency rooms.

Community partners and operators interested in learning about how to join the preferred vendor lists can contact AHS at cpsm.customersupport@albertahealthservices.ca or 1-877-595-0007.

-with files from The Canadian Press