Alberta orders outside review into ambulance response time to dog attack victim

Alberta Health Services says there will be a second, independent review into why it took an ambulance 30 minutes to get to an 86-year-old woman who had been attacked by dogs.

Police and paramedics responded Sunday to Calgary’s Capitol Hill neighbourhood and found the injured woman, Betty Ann Williams. She was taken to hospital and later died.

Mauro Chies, interim CEO of Alberta Health Services said Williams’s death was tragic.

“We are aware of the concerns expressed about the time it took for an ambulance to arrive at the scene and we take those concerns very seriously,” Chies said at a news conference Thursday.

The AHS, which runs emergency medical services, said earlier this week that based on an internal review, the response times to the initial call were appropriate and that proper protocols were followed.

Chies says based on the information provided with the initial call, EMS classified it as a dog bite that wasn’t considered life-threatening. Only when additional calls came detailing the severity of the injuries was an ambulance dispatched.

“The severity of the incident calls for the external review,” he said. “Obviously there are a lot of questions that would say there was … a delay in getting an ambulance to the site.

“We want to give assurances to the public that we are getting an independent, objective review.”

In a statement to CityNews, AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson confirmed that at the time of the incident, Calgary was in “red alert” meaning there were no ambulances immediately available to respond to calls.

“Eighteen ambulances were waiting to offload patients at various medical facilities; this includes paramedics waiting inside the facility to transfer care, ambulance crews readying to return to duty following transfer of care, or those just arriving with patients. All other ambulances in Calgary Zone were already assigned to events,” says Williamson.

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The independent review, which is expected to take about four months, will be done by someone from outside the province that is familiar with EMS dispatching and 911 emergency protocols, Chies said. The review will examine the calls made to emergency dispatch, ambulance response times, and availability of ambulances at the time.

Premier Jason Kenney said the 30-minute response was not adequate and the health authority must figure out what happened.

“They need to get to the bottom of this and find out exactly what went wrong in terms of the communication so something like this doesn’t happen again,” Kenney said at an unrelated news conference earlier Thursday.

At the same news conference, Health Minister Jason Copping added he had asked the health agency to do a more thorough investigation.

“Albertans can be rest assured that we are going to investigate this fully. Any recommendations that come out of it to improve the system … we will take those to heart,” he said.

“People should feel safe in their communities … that when the call comes out, help will be there when it’s needed.”

A police investigation into the fatal dog attack is still ongoing.

Police have said the three dogs, which were seized by the city, are believed to be a North American pit bull-terrier mix, a North American Staffordshire mix, and an American pit bull.

Criminal charges or fines could be laid and the dogs could be put down.