After a Global exclusive on the state of Edmonton’s ambulance system, the province has responded with the announcement of more than a dozen new staff.
Minister Fred Horne told Global News Tuesday morning, that effective immediately there will be 2 more ambulances on the road.
The province will also hire 17 new staff, including 5 paramedics and 12 Emergency Medical Technicians, (EMTs).
There is also a plan for 14 more staff to be hired after that.
Minister Horne also announced the Fort Road Ambulance Station is now open and operational and 5 more stations are planned, including one in the west end, in the Callingwood area, 2 downtown, one near Century Park and one in Abbottsfield.
“It’s important to note, these steps are not out of the blue,” explains Horne, who says a survey was done with front line workers. “One of the things we learned from that survey is communication between EMS workers and AHS management needs to improve, there needs to be a bit more open flow of communication. There is a joint operations committee set up that involves EMS workers, and those folks will have a direct role in planning the next stage of those improvements.”
Critics say the new staff is just a quick fix.
After losing 31 people in the last year, The new hires will just bring things back to where they should be.
And that still leaves the hospital wait time problem.
“if we have a disaster..a plane crash, a multi-vehicle crash, we do not have the capacity to deal with it,” says David Swann of the Alberta Liberals, “This is totally unacceptable for Alberta.”
Horne says those issues are still on the table for discussion and the voice of front line workers is important to that discussion.
“The real life experiences of our EMS workers are now able to have a direct impact on the choices we make when we go to allocate more resources.”
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