Liberals set up hotline to track EMS response times

The Alberta Liberal Party announced Thursday it’s launching an EMS hotline for Albertans and EMS staff to anonymously report their concerns.

Liberal leader David Khan said the initiative comes in response to delays in response times across the province, which has led to red alerts when there aren’t enough EMS responders to tackle emergency calls.

“They end up being short staffed and calling in ambulance crews from outside of Calgary even and keeping crews on much longer than their shift, trying to deal with this huge demand in red alerts,” Khan said.

“We’ve realized that what happened is these crews are sitting at hospital ERs basically attending to patients in the hallway before they can be admitted to the ER because the ER’s backed up and doesn’t take these patients in a timely manner. They can’t then go out on new emergency calls. There’s just a cascading effect all through the system.”

The hotline can be reached by calling 1-888-442-4664 or hotlineEMSalberta@gmail.com. A researcher from the University of Calgary has been hired to monitor responses and collect stories, which will then be used to draft a report.

The Liberals say EMS staff worked 135,000 hours overtime in 2016, costing taxpayers about $12 million in extra wages.

“This is a huge concern,” Khan said. “It affects response time at the most crucial time necessary ... and it’s also costing our budget far more.”

In a statement, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman noted the Alberta government’s funding increase of $23 million for EMS in this year’s budget. “I’m happy to work with all members on solutions to strengthen front line care, but I find it irresponsible that the Liberals want to direct patient and front line feedback away from established processes within AHS and toward their own political party,” she said.

“Albertans with EMS feedback should contact the AHS Patient Feedback team by calling 1-855550-2555 or visiting the patient relations webpage. All feedback is reviewed and followed up on as quickly as possible by those in the best position to focus on solutions. AHS EMS also monitors patient and front line experience through surveys, with the most recent patient survey showing 97 per cent satisfaction with the care patients received.”

But Khan said the government hasn’t been clear on how its additional funding commitment would improve EMS services.