CHAT file photo

By Teagan Rasche

three red alerts in February

New provincial budget offers little relief to ongoing ambulance shortage

Mar 2, 2022 | 4:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – It’s a grim situation for Albertans.

When emergencies happen and help is needed the most, it might not be there right away.

“We don’t have enough resources in the Edmonton, Calgary and Medicine Hat areas to respond to the average daily impacts that we see,” said Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta.

HSAA, which is the union representing the provinces’ paramedics, reports the status of EMS response across Alberta but the stats come from members on the job and likely don’t represent the extent of the crisis.

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A calendar showing the days Medicine Hat was on red alert or when an ambulance was dropped from a scheduled shift, according to HSAA’s reports

In February alone, Medicine Hat was on red alert four times, meaning there were no available resources to respond to an incident or medical call.

“There were two units dropped on Monday and a code red triggered on Monday in Medicine Hat,” Parker said. “These are all at leasts though, we don’t have the true statistics.”

In January, there were seven red alerts and three times ambulances were dropped due to staffing. There were also two separate days when ambulance response time was over an hour, according to HSAA.

In Alberta’s new provincial budget, $64 million is being allocated to EMS services.

While it’s an increase from the previous budget, long-time public health care advocate Palliser Friends of Medicare is concerned.

“It’s a 12 percent increase and they needed a 30 percent increase to catch up with the staff shortages and extra ambulances they needed,” chair Diane MacNaughton said. “It’s more money but it’s not enough money.”

Parker is worried the money won’t go to the front lines to improve services. He says retention and recruitment are the big issues right now.

“Just this week, we have 363 vacancies for paramedics in the province,” Parker said.

While the extra money in the budget helps, it might not be enough to stop code reds.

We reached out to Alberta Health on Tuesday for comment but didn’t hear back. However, AHS said in a statement in January that “Anyone who needs EMS care will receive it,” meaning ambulances will arrive from other cities but it could come with a long wait.