Ambulances in Morinville will now respond to emergencies in the Town of Legal, a development that isn’t sitting well with residents.
On April 1 Morinville took over responsibility for ambulance coverage in Legal after Alberta Health Services said it would not station an ambulance in Legal.
The town had traditionally staffed its own ambulance with volunteers but in recent years the number of volunteers had dwindled to the point the town couldn’t run the ambulance anymore.
“This has caused some concern in talking with residents with the availability of ambulances in the area and what kind of time we are looking at whenever someone needs an ambulance,” said Robert Proulx, Legal’s CAO and a 30-year ambulance volunteer.
The town had approached Alberta Health Services with a proposal to station one AHS staffed ambulance at its fire hall, but AHS didn’t go for the proposal.
“We did an analysis of what’s there and we determined that Morinville … their response times to calls are similar to what the volunteer service would be,” said Dale Weiss, AHS executive director for EMS for Edmonton zone. “We looked at utilization rates and there’s about 12 calls a month perhaps in the Legal area and it was certainly within the capacity to absorb that volume.”
But residents of Legal are more worried about how long it will take an ambulance to reach the town in the event of an emergency. The town is approximately 21 kilometres north of Morinville.
“(Alberta Health Services) assures us it will be a timely response but we all know that, providing the weather is good and the roads are clear and the ambulance is in the bay, they can be here in 15 minutes,” said Legal Mayor Lisa Magera.
“We just don’t really understand how (Alberta Health Services) can put a price on our residents’ lives.”
Residents had a chance to meet with representatives of Alberta Health Services to express their concerns on Tuesday night, after the Gazette’s press deadline. St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse was scheduled to moderate the meeting.
Weiss said Alberta Health Services won’t be adding any new ambulances or staff to Morinville as a result of this decision, even though Morinville also provides the “peak-hour car” that spends 12 hours each day in St. Albert, based out of the Sturgeon Community Hospital.
“We’ve identified the Morinville resources will be used 17 per cent of the time (in Legal), Weiss said. Ambulances from other areas can also respond to calls in Legal if the Morinville ambulances are busy.
“I think if we were not one big system, I think (problems with resources) is a possibility. But this allows us to flex units around in our system and not just in a small geographic area,” Weiss said.
But both Proulx and Magera said they will spend the next six months watching how well residents are served by this new system. If there are problems, the town will demand better ambulance coverage.
“I really don’t see how Morinville can be expected to cover all of this area,” said Magera. “We have backed up Morinville quite often so we know they are a busy unit.”
