Alberta police take patients to hospital

Edmonton police have been taking people to hospital in an emergency this year due to a shortage of available ambulances.

“We’re acting as the ambulances a lot of the times right now, because EMS is in code red … they don’t have the staff,” Edmonton’s chief of police, Dale McFee, told CityNews.

When there are no ambulances in the city, a code red is called, bringing in other emergency crews including ones from out of town.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) confirms there is a small number of instances where Edmonton police officers brought patients to hospital.

McFee says this is due to the pressure the pandemic had on all systems.

“Ambulances just say … we are tied up, we are not going to be able to get there. We just have to actually transport …  in our police cars,” McFee added.

“That shouldn’t happen. And it’s not because they aren’t working their tails off. It’s just because sometimes it’s busy. And that tells you something about some of the issues in your city.”

Meanwhile, AHS warned of increased emergency calls for most of 2022 — an increase of 30 per cent — due to the strain imposed on the health system, resulting in sick and fatigued staff.

This summer, a toddler in Calgary was taken to hospital in a fire truck.

Joe Zatylny, chief of Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, says they didn’t have to transport patients to hospital, but are noticing they are arriving first in more medical calls — 40 per cent of the time.

“We have seen more opioid-related calls than last year, but what one of our primary drivers has been is actually chest pain and breathing problems … which is very surprising, but not so surprising when you think of the pandemic, and what we came out of,” Zatylny added.

Zatylny also wonders if this trend is just the system catching up with the pandemic, or is here to stay.

READ MORE:

• Alberta Health Services repurposes COVID-19 online assessment tool

• Thousands of ambulance shifts go unfilled each month in Calgary: NDP

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Kerry Williamson, Executive Director of Issues Management at AHS says the small number of instances police had to transport patients to hospitals is a reflection of the pressure on the province’s health system.

“EMS is grateful we have been able to count on the Edmonton Police Service for its support during this sustained period of increased call volume facing the EMS system,” Williamson said. “We continue to see an increase in emergency calls over the last several months, up to 30 per cent across the province. All call types have increased, and staff illness and fatigue are also contributing to challenges in the EMS system.”

“EMS continues to hire paramedics, use the Metro Response Plan to help keep ambulances in suburban and rural communities, and the Calgary Integrated Operations Centre is fully operational, while Edmonton’s IOC has expanded hours. In Edmonton, we added 10 new ambulances to our fleet, and fully staffed them.”