Ambulances in St. Albert have been taking longer to get to the doorsteps since the provincial government took over and all candidates running in this campaign say they want to do something about it.
In 2009 the province took control of ambulance service and since then response times in the city have jumped. Statistics Alberta Health Services (AHS) released last month show the median response time for an ambulance in the city is seven minutes.
Before the transition however the city used a different benchmark, measuring how quickly an ambulance can respond in 90 per cent of calls. By that measure, ambulances in the city now respond within 13 minutes 90 per cent of the time.
Before AHS took over, city ambulances consistently arrived with nine minutes 90 per cent of the time. In response to these concerns AHS has provided 12 hours of coverage with a third ambulance, but city officials have questioned whether the vehicle is truly in place, because it is rarely available.
Under AHS management, the ambulance system is meant to be borderless, with units from Morinville and Edmonton coming into the city when the city’s vehicles are not available.
Alberta party candidate Tim Osborne said it is clear the system was working better before AHS got involved.
“From a St. Albert perspective we have seen a dramatic increase in response time and it doesn’t seem like it is working very well.”
He said it seems clear there is a need for local involvement in ambulance service.
“The previous system where municipalities were responsible for their ambulance service obviously seems like it was working a little bit better.”
Osborne, whose party is not running enough candidates to form a government, said issues like these show the importance of having MLAs who are free to speak their mind.
“This is the kind of thing where an MLA should be saying, you know what – this is a problem and we need to fix it.”
Wildrose candidate James Burrows said the ambulance issue is part of the broader problems that the move to AHS has created.
“The general issue around here is around the superboard and its bureaucratic failure dealing with ambulance.”
He said a Wildrose government would make sure local communities had the option to provide ambulance service.
“We believe that emergency services are best configured by local authorities in conjunction with local hospitals and the communities they serve.”
A former city councillor, Burrows said the city’s prior integrated system, which saw ambulance crews and fire crews working interchangeably between units, worked well, but had to be abandoned.
Prior to 2009, municipalities were provided grants from the province to cover the cost of ambulance service with many struggling to cover the cost.
Liberal candidate Kim Bugeaud said rather than take over the operation, the province should have worked with municipalities.
“It is about money, it is not about better service. We need to be able to respond with the expenditure of resources to help where it is asked.”
She said the government could clearly see the problem coming, but moved forward on it anyway.
“It was predicted that by centralizing EMS services that it would cause problems and it has caused problems.”
NDP candidate Nicole Bownes said her party wants to know what caused the problem.
“The NDP is committed to getting to the bottom of the problem, to investigate how AHS managed the transition,” she said. “The first step would be to find out what the issues are.”
In response to the concerns, the government announced earlier this year the Health Quality Council of Alberta would review the transition.
PC candidate Stephen Khan said he has confidence in that review and that it will help address the issue.
“Part of the review is they are going to be working with the municipalities and listening to the municipalities, this is not going to be a top down review.”
Khan said the province should run ambulance services because they are an important part of the system. While he agrees the transition has been rough, he says it will ultimately create a better system.
“Emergency response is a part of health care and that is why we are going to leave it under AHS,” he said. “It is a transitional piece at the moment right now, with Alberta Health Services taking over and with any transition there can be issues along the way.”
Election day is April 23.
