”It’s not a functional system.”
Those are words most people have come to expect when speaking about the government, but when they are uttered by a paramedic in regards to the province’s emergency services capabilities, they are unsettling at best.
Last week, two paramedics described their concerns about potential clogs in ambulance response in rural areas due to congestion in the city – which could be exacerbated by a lack of resources in outlying communities such as Cochrane.
Pointing to backlogged hospitals, understaffing and system abuse, they painted a picture of a system that is functioning on pure luck.
While Alberta Health Services plays down the concerns and states response times are within acceptable norms – averaging under 10 minutes – the paramedics cite cases where people have waited up to 20 minutes for an ambulance when the system is stressed.
The health service also emphasized that Cochrane always has two ambulances in service 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
In 2015, paramedics quoted in a Global News story, stated when echo patients – patients experiencing an allergic reaction, having trouble breathing, in cardiac arrest, choking, being electrocuted or if they are unconscious – wait longer than 10 minutes for an ambulance, their lives are at risk.
“You’ve got four to six minutes before you start suffering irreparable brain damage,” paramedic George Porter told the national broadcaster.
In conjunction with city services and rapid response teams such as STARS, that might seem like adequate coverage. The paramedics we spoke to, however, brought up the excellent point concerning what happens in the event of a catastrophe?
What happens if there is a severe and multiple injury accident on one of the three major highways in Cochrane’s response area, or a plane crash? In the tragic event of those scenarios, what are the response capabilities if another call comes in for a child in anaphylactic shock, for example, at the same time?
The paramedics we spoke to were emphatic about the Calgary zone lacking “surge capacity’ to deal with just such a scenario. With Cochrane limited to basic life support services for its ambulances, that also limits the types of emergencies that can be handled in town.
A 2013 report conducted by Alberta Health Services reviewing the operations of ground ambulances noted, “Increased use of medical first response by volunteer fire services is because the ‘local’ ambulance is transporting a patient to a larger centre or is providing ambulance coverage in another community.”
While emergency response might seem to be functioning within acceptable parameters in Cochrane, there is real concern that a perfect storm of events or a day of high call volumes will put lives at risk.
When first responders within the system are issuing these types of warnings, it behooves the government to take action proactively.
Don’t wait until a coroner’s inquest forces the issue.
