Ground Ambulance Services to become part of new provincial AHSB

[Ozy_Flame]

This was sent to all City staff from the Acting City Manager of the City of Calgary, and should be made public shortly. I will try and post a link when it becomes available.

What does this mean? It means Calgary EMS may leave the City of Calgary as a business unit and become a provincial operation.

Discuss?

[LChoy]

Official release

http://www.alberta.ca/acn/200805/236...4B59FC3B8.html

[BlackArcher101]

What does this mean come strike time? Anything?

[FireFly]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

What does this mean come strike time? Anything?

Means if they go the whole province is going, I'd imagine.

[calculoso]

From the link:

"Once ambulance governance has been transferred to the health system, for consistency purposes EMS practitioners will become an essential service."

Essentially, no more (legal) striking.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

What does this mean come strike time? Anything?

It sounds like EMS is going to be designated an essential service (according to the government news release). If that's the case EMS won't be able to strike, at least not legally.

Moving EMS under the umbrella of health care has the potential to be a good thing. EMS is part of the health care delivery system, so it should be part of health care as a whole.

Whether this move is a positive step or a negative step will ultimately depend on how it's funded now that the province has assumed responsibility for that. The province was supposed to assume funding for EMS a couple years ago too, but stepped back and refused to ante up once they saw what it would cost. I hope their willingness to assume funding now means they're willing to do so at an adequate level. If not, the level of EMS care in this province will drop ... especially in Calgary. Calgary is recognized worldwide as an elite EMS service and services from around the world look to Calgary EMS as a model for developing their own local systems. I am very skeptical that the Alberta government will fund Calgary EMS at a level that will enable them to sustain that level. Other towns and cities may well benefit from this, but I suspect Calgary will not.

Edit: I think Calgary EMS management is quite concerned about this too. I am attending a national EMS conference in Victoria at the moment, which Calgary EMS Chief Tom Samson and other Calgary deputy chiefs are (were) attending as well. When the announcement came from the government this morning they immediately left the conference and headed home, despite some of them being board members of the group holding the conference and having board duties to fulfill here. The few comments I overheard were to the effect of we'll have to see how everything works out, but they have major concerns about ownership of resources, both material and non-material (such as various training programs) and what will become of Calgary EMS long-term (read, sufficient funding).