Paramedic Services Week runs from May 18–25
BONNYVILLE – Bonnyville EMS is settling into their new location west of Bonnyville after moving from their old home near the hospital to the new North Star building in April.
“There’s always growing pains moving into a new building, but I would say it was a good team building exercise. The staff has kind of joined together in making it our new EMS home,” said Ken Hesson, the Deputy Chief Paramedic at Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority.
According to Hesson, the new location has improved their response time because at the old location they had school zones in both directions, which they had to reduce speed for as well as navigating the Town of Bonnyville itself in a hurry.
“For calls towards Cold Lake, Fort Kent, Ardmore . . . we can bypass town, and we actually gain a little bit of time and it's a lot safer for everybody involved, because we don't have to go through the traffic with lights and sirens,” said Hesson.
He said the new building also includes several upgrades for the paramedics with a “more comprehensive” staff lounge, training facilities, and medication and storage space than what was present in the old building.
“The out-of-town staff, which comprises probably about 35 to 40 per cent of our staff have settled into the new accommodations that we have on site here . . . the new facility helps with the recruitment process as well,” said Hesson.
According to Hesson, Bonnyville is one of the few places to include accommodations as part of an offer. They have living space, laundry facilities, and workout facilities all in the house, so when staff from out of town are on shift, they just bring their own bedding.
He said Bonnyville’s paramedics work what is called a five plus four shift. The shifts are 12-hours long including a combination of day and night shifts with each rotation, but also “guarantees the full-time staff members two five-day weekends every month.”
On average in 2024, Hesson said they responded to about 9.8 calls per day, with about 180 each month being emergencies and 118.4 being for interfacility transfers.
He said a transfer to Cold Lake for someone to get a CT scan usually takes about two hours, while a transfer to Edmonton could be seven to 10 hours, depending on if they’re simply delivering a patient to another hospital or waiting for them to have a procedure done and bringing them back.
“When we clear up in Edmonton and we're coming home empty, under the current system we're an available ambulance. So, if there is an emergency call within the city . . . or anywhere along the corridor, we would get tagged for it,” said Hesson.
He said dispatch does typically try to keep them more or less homeward bound.
“If there’s a patient going back to say, St. Paul, Two Hills, any of the communities along the way . . . if there’s a patient already sitting there waiting to come back, they will definitely attach us to that patient.”
Bonnyville is contracted through Alberta Health Services to operate one Advanced Life Support ambulance and two Basic Life Support ambulances. They also have a paramedic response unit Monday through Friday which can do first response to provide medical care until an ambulance is available to bring the patient to the hospital.
