Red Deer ambulance -- RE News

By RD News staff

Fight not over yet

Complaint filed with Ombudsman regarding ambulance consolidation: Red Deer city council

Sep 17, 2021 | 9:27 AM

RED DEER, AB. — Since July of this year, the City of Red Deer along with Lethbridge, Calgary, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo have been strongly advocating against the decision by Alberta health Services and the Alberta government to consolidate regional ambulance dispatch services.

Despite these efforts, on Jan. 12, 2021, ambulance dispatch was officially consolidated across Alberta.

Since the consolidation, regions across Alberta have experienced significant issues in varying degrees with the service, which has significantly increased the risk to patients’ care across our province. This week, Red Deer city council voted unanimously to officially file a complaint against the decision and the system with the Alberta Ombudsman.

Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer says their communities have tried every avenue to communicate with the provincial government that this system is flawed and to strongly dispute the effectiveness of it, but so far their calls for a third-party review have been unanswered.

“With a municipal election looming, we want to reassure all Albertans, and Alberta Health Services, that we will not be giving up the fight for what we know is in the best interest of patient safety. We hope that filing this official complaint with the Alberta Ombudsman reiterates that we will exhaust every avenue possible to revisit the government’s decision.”

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Removing local, integrated EMS dispatch has impacted the health and safety of Albertans and impacted patient outcomes in all four regions.

“We ask citizens and all municipalities in Alberta to join us in our fight to restore regional ambulance dispatch by writing into your local MLA, the Minister of Health and the Premier with your concerns on how this consolidation has affected dispatch and ambulance response times,” said Mayor Veer.

For more information, and to access a form letter, please visit www.reddeer.ca/secondscount.