Wheatland County sent a resolution to the Central District Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) for endorsement regarding concerns about the capacity and delivery of ambulance services in rural Alberta.
The submission deadline was September 15, ahead of the regularly scheduled council meeting on Tuesday, September 21 and council ratified the submission at the meeting.
“We’re impacted by resources being drawn into Calgary, and there are other municipalities that are experiencing the same,” said Wheatland County Reeve Amber Link during the meeting.
Reeve Link added this has impacts and concerns for public safety.
In the September 15 edition of the Mail, it was noted the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) began posting the status of ambulance service throughout the province, and the increased number of Red Alerts-where there are no ambulances available.
Councillor Glenn Koester originally requested Wheatland County to forward the resolution to the Central RMA general meeting regarding the concerns rural Albertans face with the provincial EMS service.
With EMS services transitioning from a municipal to provincial responsibility, many rural Albertans have been left without ambulatory services, or reduced capacity, due to the repositioning of resources to other areas-mostly to more populated, urban and metropolitan areas, such as Calgary.
“Since the transition to a provincial EMS system, the impacts on municipalities, who support emergency medical care by providing medical first response, includes increasing need for municipal fire services to provide medical first response, which can result in increased stress on firefighters responding to medical incidents and increased costs,” states the resolution.
The resolution was sent for endorsement at the Central RMA district general meeting, which was ratified unanimously by council; if it receives endorsement it will move forward to the RMA conference, scheduled for November.
