The City of Cold Lake has had enough with the lack of local ambulance service.
“When you pick up the line to call 911, you know the fire and police are going to be there. Right now, you cannot give assurances that 100 percent of the time there's going to be an ambulance in Cold Lake,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.
The latest incident, on Aug. 20, saw an hour and a half go by with no ambulance within city boundaries. Prior to that, on the Saturday of the August long weekend, Cold Lake residents were without an ambulance for three and a half hours.
“Instead of hiring the Cold Lake Ambulance Society to engage their fourth ambulance, Alberta Health Service's (AHS) policy right now appears they're okay with ambulance coming from Bonnyville,” explained Copeland. “That whole time frame it takes one to come from Bonnyville, could be 30 minutes, AHS is okay with Cold Lake not having an ambulance.”
The issue of ambulatory services in Cold Lake was brought back to the table at city council on Aug. 25. The two most recent occurrences of a lack of service in the city was the last straw for councilors, who are ready to do whatever is necessary for local residents to have an ambulance at-the-ready all the time.
“Costco sells defibrillators…that's what it's going to come to. This has gotten ridiculous, having this for about three or four years,” said Counc. Kelvin Plain during the meeting.
Counc. Vicky Lefebvre added, “It doesn't matter the cost, how do you justify someone losing a spouse or a child. We're just lucky nothing has happened yet.”
In 2014 the Cold Lake Ambulance Society logged 180 hours in ‘code red', meaning there were 180 hours throughout the year that there was no ambulance in the city. The number of hours in code red in 2013 was 258 and in 2012, there were 196 hours in code red.
What is the reason for the numbers being so high? Well, council puts the blame solely on AHS and the central dispatching system.
“The City of Cold Lake used to backstop the Cold Lake Ambulance Society, along with the MD of Bonnyville for ambulance coverage in our area. When AHS decided to take over all of the ambulance coverage in our area out of central dispatch, we lost that security for our community,” said Copeland.
He added, “For Cold Lake residents, I can't tell them that we're always going to have an ambulance available in Cold Lake and that's a sad state of affairs.”
While there is the fourth ambulance always sitting unengaged in the city, the cost for AHS to make that ambulance active is just over $100 per hour. Copeland expressed that even though he thinks it's “chump change for a person's life”, AHS seems to think differently.
“I think right now we are playing with people's lives. When you talk to the senior bureaucrats representing AHS the statistics tell them that about 94 to 96 percent of the time, the decision for Cold Lake to wait 25 minutes for an ambulance is going to be safe,” explained Copeland. “So basically, a statistic person is calling the shots now for AHS.”
“There has been acknowledgement by high level ministry that the central dispatch system doesn't suit places like ours. AHS has been resisting all along, it's going to take a political fix,” said Counc. Bob Buckle.
Ideas were bounced around the council chambers about what the city is prepared to do to fix the ambulance issues. Those options include footing the bill for the hours a fourth ambulance is engaged, running their own system all together or exploring the possibility of an integrated Fire-Ambulance system.
Judging by last year's number of hours in code red, it would have cost the city $18,000 for the year. However even if the city were to fund a fourth ambulance, or their own service, the concerns around central dispatching still remain.
“I don't want tax payer dollars going out (of the city) if we paid extra for our service, eventually (AHS) will co-opt that,” Buckle exclaimed. “If we can opt out of the central dispatch system then I'm on board.”
Regardless of which avenue they take, Copeland said it's important the people of Cold Lake and Alberta know what's going on.
“It's going on everywhere and I think the people of Alberta need to know this is going on. I've had enough and this is why we brought it forward, to let the residents of our area know this is going on.”
Copeland added, “The Cold Lake Ambulance Society and people at Bonnyville ambulance are dedicated professionals and they should not be called out (of the city). When you call an ambulance and it takes 20 minutes for it to get there, there are reasons behind all this. Don't blame the ambulance crew.”
After already trying to contact the minister's office and not getting any reply, council is going to try once again to write a letter outlining the recent incidents, and possibly bring it forward during a mayors' meeting for other municipal officials to discuss. The issue will be brought forward for further discussion at a future council meeting.
