The Town of Okotoks wants Alberta Health Services to provide it with the staffing levels of its ambulances amid an effort to track response times and adequately recognize the work of the local fire department.
The tracking of the fire department's medical responses began this summer and since then has painted a grim picture. Though percentages have varied, statistics show Okotoks firefighters often arrive on scene ahead of EMS on medical co-responses.
Wait times for ambulances increased from September to October, which the Town says likely indicates EMS units were staffed less and/or the units were out of Town more often.
"We increasingly find that the units are in Calgary," Okotoks Fire Chief Trevor Brice told council this week. "We’re increasingly finding out that the units aren’t staffed – we're supposed to have two units 24/7.
"Invariably, we’ve got one a lot of the time."
Mayor Tanya Thorn and Coun. Rachel Swendseid said they each had a similar impression, albeit via anecdotal data.
"I believe it looks like those ambulances are here technically but anecdotally I've heard they’re still leaving the zone," said Swendseid.
However, in order to paint the entire picture, the Town said it needs the other set of data from the Province which is not readily available.
In August, the Province made an announcement that Okotoks would receive four additional paramedics and 24/7, local ambulance coverage.
CAO Elaine Vincent said that at first, the announced changes seemed to be making a difference.
"We saw a very positive trend line in August; in fact we were all like, Maybe we’re past the hump,'" she said. "That is absolutely, positively not the case.
"We’re back down to declining service level in this community and when you speak to the frontline service providers who are delivering AHS ambulance services, they are raising the alarm bell."
Vincent added it's imperative that the long-awaited, solutions-oriented government report be released.
"My understanding is it has options for municipalities moving forward that the town of Okotoks would be very interested in pursuing," she said.
Okotoks will continue to collect response data in the coming months.
