An unofficial group of Alberta-based paramedics is hosting a town hall in Airdrie on Aug. 13 to bring to light the city’s lack of ambulance and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) availability.
Don Sharpe, a registered paramedic whose career has spanned four decades, said the town hall – hosted at the Airdrie legion at 6 p.m. – will be an informal gathering for Airdrie residents, paramedics, former patients and industry professionals to discuss the challenges facing ambulance coverage in Alberta's suburban and rural areas.
Sharpe said speakers will include retired and current paramedics and EMTs, their family members, and former patients who have been impacted by long ambulance wait times. Each speaker will be allotted two minutes, and the presentations will be followed by a Q&A period.
“This is a chance for people who want to ask questions or tell their story about ambulance service in their small town,” Sharpe said, adding the town hall is not a union or AHS-affiliated event.
“People who have been hurt by long responses, they want to tell their stories. There are spouses of paramedics who want to come talk about what it’s like to be married to someone who is tired all the time, or who is burned out and angry.”
According to the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), ambulance coverage in Calgary’s outlying communities is often under-serviced. Mike Parker, HSAA president, previously said a lack of funding for ambulance coverage has resulted in a situation where smaller communities are often unable to offer rapid ambulance service when their local crews are called into incidents in Calgary, where a lack of sufficient resources and higher call volumes lead to a resource drain from rural areas.
Sharpe agreed with the union president, calling the current situation involving ambulance coverage in Alberta “a crisis.”
“The problem is, right now, if your brother falls in the river and drowns, or your child gets hit by a car and the ambulance is 35 minutes away, what are you going to do?” he said. “Are you going to drive them yourself or wait for an ambulance? That’s the question. People are starting to wake up and realize help isn’t there.”
Sharpe’s group is hosting four town halls from Aug. 10 to 13, with the other three taking place in Okotoks, Cochrane and Strathmore. He said the team facilitating the meetings hopes to form cohesive ideas and a strong voice to advocate for improvements to accessing EMS in Calgary's outlying communities. He added statistics will be shared at the meeting regarding local response times and hallway waits, as well as potential policy improvements.
While patients waiting upwards of 30 minutes for an ambulance are the demographic most impacted by long wait times, Sharpe said paramedics themselves are also hurt by the crisis.
“I’ve seen far too many of my colleagues injured, both mentally and physically, and be booked off,” he said. “The pace is relentless and the mandatory overtime, you can’t avoid it. Airdrie crews on their way home…will sometimes get tagged with another call. What are their options? You can’t say no. Hopefully they can find a couple seconds to call home and tell their spouse, ‘We’ve got another late call.’
“Late calls are a reality in our business, but when they happen night after night after night…those are career-ending. People can’t work at that pace forever – they break down and burn out.”
According to Sharpe, Airdrie City councillors will also be at the town hall on Aug. 13, and he is hoping the city’s two local MLAs will also be in attendance.
Considering the Airdrie legion has a standing capacity of just 40 people, Sharpe said if more than that show up on Aug. 13, the group will move to the facility’s parking lot outside.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
