Insufficient funding is continuing to cause trouble for the Cold Lake Ambulance Society (CLAS).
The group, which oversees all ambulatory care in Cold Lake, is finding themselves without the means to continue their current level of service. An increase in call volume, coupled with a drop in funding, left the society asking for help from city council last week.
“With (increased) call volumes is increased pressure to our service because you have increased fuel costs, labour costs, even in bad debt. This is impacting our budget to maintain the current level of service we're offering right now,” said Debra Pelechosky, CLAS president. “One option, which we hope we don't have to go to, is a decreased level of service. We don't feel that is in the best interests of the citizens of Cold Lake or Albertans.”
Ambulance service in Cold Lake has been in the spotlight lately, with a substantial number of hours being spent in Code Red (without an ambulance in city limits). City council has been lobbying consistently for better funding, writing letters to the province and meeting with health officials. Now, residents might not even be able to continue receiving their current level of care.
“You know the issue is that they're funded at 2009 levels and their call volume has increased by over 50 per cent. So their funding, you would think, would increase by that amount but it hasn't,” said mayor Craig Copeland.
Currently, the CLAS operates two frontline cars and one core flex car, which is operational for four hours per day and on-call with the driver at home for the rest of the time. Their funding from AHS, however, is for one frontline car and two core flex cars. After trying out that system, the CLAS deemed it not substantial service for the people of Cold Lake.
“If it's a flex car and it takes eight minutes to get from your home to the ambulance, get in the ambulance and go to the call, you add eight minutes onto maybe a 10 minute call,” explained Pelechosky of why they decided to go against having two flex cars.
She added, “The bottom line for us is patient care. We want to make sure that anytime anyone in Cold Lake calls an ambulance it's there in the shortest amount of time possible.”
In just three years, local call volumes have increased from 1,632 in 2012 to close to an estimated 2,500 in 2015. Year to date, Cold Lake has been in Code Red in excess of 100 hours. During that time, neither of the frontline cars or the flex car is in the city.
“We have a big problem and I don't think everyone in Alberta is aware. There's a situation going on in communities across the province that you may not have an ambulance when you call 911,” said Copeland. “It doesn't matter if it's a PC or NDP government, we've been saying the same story and AHS just digs in their heels. They're not prepared to give the Cold Lake Ambulance Society more funding.”
Due to the central dispatching system, if a Cold Lake ambulance is called to do a transfer to Edmonton it will be gone for at least the eight hours. Once in Edmonton, that unit can then be sent out to any calls in the area or during its trip back to Cold Lake. At times, both frontline cars can be occupied leaving just the flex car, or no ambulance at all.
“AHS is really tough. They're treating everyone under the same brush. Our concern on council is that there's no guarantee anymore that there's an ambulance in Cold Lake, they're playing roulette,” said Copeland.
The provincial standard for an EMS frontline unit is to be in the ambulance within 90-seconds. With one ambulance situated in the north station and one in the south, the Cold Lake ambulance crew meets the 90-second standard 98 per cent of the time, with the average response time being 55-seconds until they're in the ambulance.
If the CLAS remains at their current funding level, Pelechosky said there's no way they'll be able to continue with that response time.
“We're in the business of saving lives, and if anyone calls for an ambulance it always feels like it takes such a long time for an ambulance to arrive. If we went to a decreased level of service, it'll take even longer for an ambulance to arrive. If someone is having a heart attack, or a stoke or a baby not breathing, you don't want an ambulance to take a long time to get to your house.”
Bonnyville – Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr has lent his support to the CLAS as well. After meeting with them last week, Cyr has committed to helping get their concerns heard at a provincial level.
“Going from a 90-second response time to an eight-minute response time seems to be a little excessive. This is a rural problem across Alberta, it doesn't seem to be addressed by the ministry. What happens is we need to make sure they're fully informed when they make a decision. I'm hoping that Miniser Hoffman is open to hearing what we have to say about ambulances.”
Knowing that they won't be receiving that additional funding from AHS, the CLAS is hoping that the local municipalities will back them up. Having already approached Hearts for Healthcare, the organization told the CLAS they would give $40,000 provided the City of Cold Lake and MD of Bonnyville also pitch in.
Since they've gone with a second frontline ambulance, as opposed to the AHS model, the difference negatively impacts the society's budget by approximately $12,000 per month or $144,000 per year. On top of that, their ambulance fleet will mile out in approximately four years and will cost $130,000 each to replace.
“The problem being is that we have to have money aside. If we're using all of our money for operating, then we can't put away for capital. So it's either giving us money for capital or giving us money to operate so that we can put away for capital,” said Pelechosky.
If they receive the $40,000 from each of the three groups: the City, MD and Hearts for Healthcare, Pelechosky said that funding will likely go towards capital to purchase a new ambulance when the time comes.
The matter will be back before city council at a future meeting. The CLAS will also be approaching the MD council in the near future.
