AHS planning to remove EMS dispatch from integrated emergency system: Labour Council
Posted Aug 25, 2014 10:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
According to the Calgary and District Labour Council, Alberta Health Services is planning to create its own private call centre for EMS dispatch in the city.
The council has obtained documents that they say suggest AHS is planning a switch over.
EMS, fire, and police emergency services are all presently operated under one integrated system through the City of Calgary.
Labour Council President, Alexander Shevalier said the current system improves emergency response times.
“What we’re going to be seeing is sort of more back and forth between [the services], because some calls require multiple agency responses. For example, if there’s potential for violence, both the police and EMS have to go. Moving the EMS portion of dispatch out, I’m concerned that it will simply increase wait times and increase response times,” explained Shevalier, who says increased response times essentially result in more lives lost.
The council president also said this seems to be a provincial trend.
“We’ve been seeing Alberta Health Services to centralized locations. In Lethbridge and Red Deer they actually stopped the process because of local objections. I think it’s an effort to centralize and effort to save money.”
Shevalier says if AHS wants to make this change, they have to prove to Calgary it’s the better way to go.
“If Alberta Health Services can demonstrate that this won’t increase emergency response time, great. But right now it looks like it will simply increase time, so they need to demonstrate that to the people of Calgary before they make this change.”
