2021 a year of present challenges and future opportunities for Lethbridge Fire & EMS

They received 18,368 calls for EMS and another 1,840 for firefighters.

There were about 60,000 total 911 calls to the dispatch centres and approximately 6,000 more from their rural partners.

“That’s a lot of calls when you divide it up sort of by 365 in a year. We’re a very busy active service.”

911 EMS Dispatch

Perhaps the issue that has gotten both first responders and elected government officials talking this year was the consolidation of 911 EMS dispatch services.

In January 2021, the municipally-run contracted satellite dispatch sites, in Lethbridge, Red Deer, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and Calgary were transitioned into the three existing AHS EMS dispatch centres.

The rationale from AHS was that consolidation would save over $6-million annually and not impact the quality of emergency responses. While not commenting on the financial aspect, Rathwell says this change has had the opposite impact on calls for service.

“With the EMS dispatch piece transitioning out, it’s caused delays and we’ve tried to point this out, or we haven’t tried, we’ve been pointing this out to them for the last year, how those delays impact the health and well-being of our community, so [those] pieces of frustration. We are getting sent out at times and there are certain calls where they’re missing us, and I know we pick and choose what calls we go to, but buried in there is just sort of sometimes a loss of sort of continuity when a different group is actually dispatching you. The other piece to it is when you have a third party like this actually dispatching your units, you actually lose sort of situational awareness of where your units are at.”

One positive came out of this issue for Rathwell, however. He got to work collaboratively with EMS leaders in other Alberta communities and government officials to a level he has rarely seen throughout his career.

New Fire Halls

With Lethbridge growing at such a fast pace in recent decades, it ultimately warrants the need for expanded emergency services over time.

That is why this June marked the opening of a brand new fire hall on the west side.

Rathwell says the $9.5-million facility comes with all of the modern bells and whistles while ensuring emergency responders have state-of-the-art equipment to work with.

He is also continuing to look into relocating the fire station that is currently on 16 Ave South

“That station has been there for over 60 years. We’re probably looking at 70 years of life cycle on that, that station, and we’re struggling to actually make it a functional station based on the demand of need in that part of the city. And then we also have to look at sort of the future need for the south side of the city.”

Pandemic

What would a look back on 2021 be without touching on COVID-19?

In his department, Rathwell says members have spent a large amount of time moving COVID-positive patients around in the community.

That could include taking them from their homes to Chinook Regional Hospital or transporting them to other places like Calgary for more advanced care.

“So our staff continue to do phenomenal work in terms of protecting themselves, the patients, and all the rest of our folks in the community as we deal with this sort of COVID issue. Super proud of the fact that so many of our staff have stepped up, and they’re following all these procedures that we’ve had outlined fairly quickly on the fly the first year and then sort of just tweaking where we need to in the follow-up year.”

Back in November, the City of Lethbridge stated that 94.3 per cent of all fire and EMS personnel had reported their COVID-19 vaccination status. Among those who sent in their information, 92.3 per cent were fully vaccinated or were in the process of becoming fully vaccinated.

LNN asked Rathwell in our December 21 interview if he would be able to say how many members were on leave or resigned due to the vaccination policy. Due to privacy concerns, he was unable to comment.

Priorities Heading Into 2022

February 11, 2022, will mark Marc Rathwell’s retirement.

He started his career in emergency services in Lethbridge as a paramedic/firefighter in 1996, spending the last 2.5 years as the city’s fire chief.

While he was not able to comment on the progress towards finding his replacement, he will spend the early part of the new year preparing whomever it is to take over the reins.

Rathwell also wants to speak to Lethbridge City Council about expanding fire and EMS and “making sure that we move to what a modern day fire force would look like in our community.”

The service has seen some attrition and other spots open up over the last year, which is why Rathwell is looking forward to bringing on two new classes of recruits.

Work on the south side fire hall will likely take up a lot of time for whoever becomes the city’s new fire chief.

by David Opinko

2021 a year of present challenges and future opportunities for Lethbridge Fire & EMS

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