FRESC demands return of rural EMS dispatch

Substandard service levels and potentially life-threatening delays have officials with the Foothills Regional Emergency Services Commission (FRESC) demanding rural EMS dispatch in the region be returned to their control.

Seven years have passed since emergency services dispatch was removed from Foothills 911 and taken over by Alberta Health Services (AHS).

Since that time, FRESC has raised concerns to the provincial government on several occasions, to no avail.

Suzanne Oel, chair of FRESC, said the separation of fire dispatch and EMS dispatch in southern Alberta has been to the detriment of residents, visitors and travellers passing through this part of the province.

She said the problems span all 26 municipalities of the Foothills’ 911 coverage area and include delays in dispatch, personnel not being familiar with the local region, gaps in coverage and a lack of co-ordinated response. Worse, Oel said the situation may have contributed to at least one death.

“There are life-threatening delays and risks to first responders and all these issues that are associated with breaking up the fire and EMS dispatch,” said Oel. “We’re trying to share that this is current, it’s gotten worse with the transition to the Calgary South Communications Centre, located in Quarry Park in Calgary.”

Rural EMS dispatch was moved to the AHS communications centre on Feb. 21 when the City of Calgary took back control of its own dispatch.

Oel said the solution now is to return co-ordinated dispatch back to the Foothills 911 centre, as it was done prior to 2009.

She said FRESC would like to be extended the same consideration as municipalities like Calgary, Lethbridge, Red Deer and Fort McMurray, which have all been permitted to keep their EMS dispatch in order to better co-ordinate with fire dispatch.

“We feel it would really make sense to allow the same custom design for us, because they have recognized that the centralization of dispatch is not working,” said Oel. “It’s really not working here and it’s not only our lives, but all of our visitors’ lives that are at risk.”

Despite a number of meetings and letter-writing campaigns, Oel said Minister Sarah Hoffman has told FRESC the government is aware of the problems but is not taking steps to make any changes at this time.

Interview requests with Hoffman’s office were not returned by press deadline.

Darren Sandbeck, chief paramedic with AHS, said the provincial model has been established now and it’s the path the government continues to be on.

“I believe the provincial model is working,” said Sandbeck. “It’s a solid system, but it’s not without it’s challenges.”

He said AHS has an investigation process in place to identify and handle problems to address issues as they arise and use the information as a learning tool to provide the best service it can.

It has been a success in many jurisdictions worldwide, and Alberta is no exception, he said.

“We believe that patients are not at risk,” said Sandbeck. “We have no evidence of any increase in adverse patient outcomes because of the dispatch model, and I think it goes without saying patient safety is our top priority at all times.”

Oel disagrees. According to statistics released by FRESC, 96 per cent of all AHS dispatch notifications to Foothills 911 for medical fire response are taking longer than 90 seconds, which is the maximum time recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.

In addition, 73 per cent of AHS dispatch calls to Foothills 911 are 60 seconds over the recommended time of 90 seconds, and in 56 per cent of cases it takes longer than three minutes to dispatch a call to Foothills 911, she said.

“It’s daily, and the calls are sent back for fire first response in what we would say is lengthy sub-standard minutes rather than industry-standard seconds,” said Oel. “It’s a disparity of at least three times longer than it was out of a single-point 911 call answer centre, and that’s only processing the call if it goes really smoothly.”

She said it’s important for people to know how serious the issues are, and for the government to pay attention to evidence of sub-standard service levels from incidents that have occurred to-date in 2017.

There have been a number of shocking and dangerous incidents in the past few months alone, she said.

Oel provided details of one incident where an individual died from cardiac arrest due to a poorly co-ordinated call with an error in ambulance response and no advanced medical help on-scene for 50 minutes. It occurred in January, prior to the changeover to the new communications centre.

Though it occurred before the changover, Oel said it’s indicative of the problems FRESC has been dealing with for the past seven years.

“This issue has been ongoing and FRESC can’t sit by,” she said.

AHS was not able to confirm or comment on the incident before press deadline.

In a second case of cardiac arrest, care was delayed 40 minutes because dispatch would not allow the closest ambulance to attend the scene and were not familiar with the distances, she said.

In Brooks, a baby with a breathing problem waited for 64 minutes for an ambulance when fire personnel were only 6.5 kilometres away from the scene, she said.

“We’re talking about people here, not just incidents,” said Oel. “In our opinion, there’s nothing wrong with saying it’s not working and it’s better for us to make a different decision because we’re talking about people’s lives here.”

If an agreement could be made between Foothills 911 and AHS to run a satellite centre in the region, she said making the transition could be done fairly quickly.

It’s a matter of bringing in the right technical apparatus to communicate with the AHS system, she said.

“We believe it can be done in short order, and we would make every effort to make that happen,” said Oel. “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”

For more information regarding rural dispatch concerns visit www.fixrural911dispatch.com.