Emergency Medical Services (November 29)
Dr. Swann: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An excellent emergency medical service in Alberta was arbitrarily ripped from municipalities to Alberta Health Services in April 2009.
Alberta EMS was considered among the top 5 per cent of services in North America before the change. Alberta Health Services promised the transition would improve quality and efficiency. Well, current staff morale is at an all-time low across the province according to workers in the field.
To the minister: what are the indicators that the EMS transition has been a success? What are we getting for $219 million?
Mr. Horne: Well, Mr. Speaker, I don’t have a lot of details at hand about the transition to which the hon. member refers. I’d be pleased to get him some more information down the road. What I can tell you is that the culture within the system and particularly among EMS providers has in my view improved considerably in the last few months.
Dr. Swann: Well, I would challenge the minister, then, to do a survey, as Dr. Duckett did, and actually find out what the morale is.
Given that there used to be weekly reporting of EMS response times, why have you stopped measuring response times and performance since 2009?
Mr. Horne: Well, Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member is referring to a performance reporting exercise undertaken by Alberta Health Services, I can certainly attempt to provide him with some information about that. The other alternative is for the hon. member to ask AHS on his own. I would submit to you that emergency medical services workers take the same tremendous pride in their work as all other partners in the health care team. Response times are among the highest indicators of their perform-ance. As well, their integration with other members of the health care team, their ability to have input, responsibility in day-to-day decisions, which has been a focus of AHS management, is another important feature . . .
The Speaker: The hon. member, please.
Dr. Swann: Well, the minister is right. Response times are the best indicators of emergency response. Why aren’t they measuring them and reporting them? Given that soaring overtime costs now in EMS have meant that Edmonton has been down as many as 10 ambulance units at a time, what assurance can the minister offer Albertans that emergency services will be there when they need them?
Mr. Horne: Well, Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the hon. member, I don’t have any direct knowledge that, in fact, AHS is not reporting and monitoring response times in the system. I would be very surprised if that was the case. As I said, I’d be pleased to get him some additional information on this and provide it outside of question period.
Alberta Hansard, November 29, 2011