Alberta Health Services (AHS) presented yearly Crossfield ambulance statistics to Town council June 21, that indicated the community averaged longer than provincial target response times for emergency services for a municipality of its size.
Donald Allan, AHS director of Suburban /Rural Clinical Operations EMS – Calgary zone, told council the provincial target response time for life-threatening events in communities greater that 3,000 is expected to be 50 per cent arrival by 12 minutes and 90 per cent by 15 minutes.
“Currently we are higher than that, so we need to look at the way we are delivering care in the area,” he said.
The statistics, gathered from April 2015 to March 2016, showed only 31 per cent of Crossfield’s emergencies – about 15 calls – arrived within the provincial target.
The remainder of events – about 33 calls – took longer than 15 minutes to arrive, with 29 responded to within 16 to 20 minutes.
“That’s beyond where we’d like to be,” Allan said.
According to Allan, throughout the year, the number of 9-1-1 related events in Crossfield totaled 189 with ambulances being dispatched 213 times.
He added, an average of 75 per cent of patients were transported to hospital.
Allan said in all, that equated to less than one event per day on average in Crossfield.
“Which makes a little bit of a challenge on our part to keep an ambulance in the community and the staff engaged in what’s going on,” he said.
He said, AHS is currently conducting a zone overview to get a better understanding of the response times in all the communities.
To improve response times in Crossfield, he said AHS would look specifically in the area north of Calgary and see if there is any way to shift resources internally.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any new money floating our way to put extra ambulances on the road,” Allan said.
Most of the ambulances responding to Crossfield come from either Airdrie or Carstairs, he said.
In the case of Carstairs, Allan said the zone review would give AHS a better understanding of whether increasing that service from 12-hours to 24-hours would better serve the region or if splitting two 12-hour shifts between Carstairs and Crossfield might work better.
“We probably won’t have a good understanding of that until August when the full Calgary zone review is complete,” he said.
The Town of Crossfield is currently in the process of expanding its fire hall into an Emergency Services Complex that will have a bay dedicated to housing an ambulance.
“Our view is, you’ll be here eventually so we’re going to build a space for you and get ready,” Mayor Nathan Anderson said. “Let us know when you need it.”
