Alberta NDP Municipal Affairs Critic Joe Ceci is addressing emergency care concerns in communities surrounding Calgary.
The NDP Caucus is calling on the provincial government to address an increase of ambulances being pulled into Calgary from surrounding municipalities, including Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, and Strathmore, an Alberta NDP Caucus media release said.
The NDP obtained documents from Alberta Health Services (AHS) through a freedom of information request, stating that ambulances in surrounding communities were dispatched to Calgary more than 30,000 times in three years, the release said.
“If an Albertan is in distress of course the nearest available ambulance should respond immediately regardless of where that Albertan lives,” Ceci said. “But the longer a community, such as Airdrie, is called on to divert its ambulances to other communities the greater risk there is that an ambulance will not be able to arrive in its own community when needed.”
Ambulances in Airdrie responded to Calgary calls more than 2,000 times between 2019 and 2020. However, between 2021 and 2022 ambulances responded to more than 7,000 calls.
Cochrane ambulances responded to more than 3,000 calls in Calgary in 2021 and 2022.
Emergency services in Chestermere responded to 1,017 Calgary calls in 2019 and 2020, and 1,653 calls in 2021 and 2022. While Strathmore emergency services responded to 857 calls in 2019 and 2020, and 3,159 calls in 2021 and 2022, the release said.
“The trends we are seeing are distressing and must be a call for action. We do not need more reports and we do not need more committees. Albertans need this UCP government to listen to paramedics on the front lines and act,” Ceci said.
The NDP is calling for there to be immediate action taken to ensure paramedics are not exhausted and burnout by ending their shift on time, and for paramedics to have job security and benefits by offering them permanent full-time jobs.
The NDP is also calling for the provincial government to provide more harm reduction services to ease the strain on ambulances responding to drug poisoning crises, the release said.
