Provincial funding for Medical First Response
IT IS THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT Alberta Municipalities advocate to the Government of Alberta to compensate municipalities that operate a fire service with employees or volunteers who are qualified as Medical First Responders in instances when those firefighters respond to emergencies due to the absence or delay of provincial paramedics in their service area.
WHEREAS public health is a provincial responsibility and emergency medical services (EMS) and ambulance response are the authority of Alberta Heath Services (AHS) and its contractors;
WHEREAS AHS centralized and assumed responsibility for EMS from municipalities and at that time promised no degradation of EMS services;
WHEREAS many municipalities operate a fire service whose firefighters participate in the Medical First Response program but are not trained paramedics;
WHEREAS these firefighters often serve as first responders in the absence or delay of AHS paramedics within their service area;
WHEREAS AHS paramedics are at times delayed or not available to attend as first responders thereby leaving that responsibility to the firefighters;
WHEREAS the Alberta Emergency Medical Services Dispatch Review by PwC noted that the average wait time to respond to an EMS event increased by 18.5 minutes province-wide between 2017 and 2022;
WHEREAS Health Minister Jason Copping indicated that the Alberta government accepted all 53 recommendations in the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee’s Final Report and; (1)
(1) Alberta EMS report recommends steps toward privatization, critics say | CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-ems-advisory-committee-….
WHEREAS many jurisdictions, due to unbudgeted rising costs, are contemplating reducing MFR service levels to no longer respond to medical assist calls, even though it places its own residents in further jeopardy.
In May 2022, the Province engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to conduct an independent review of Alberta's integrated EMS dispatch model. The purpose of the review was to identify opportunities and provide recommendations that support the EMS Dispatch system in improving patient outcomes. The PwC Report noted that,
“In 2004 Alberta began a journey to evolve the coordination and oversight of the EMS dispatch system from a decentralized system to a centralized system. This was done to improve service consistency, standardization and embed EMS within the broader health system to provide high-quality, patient centred care across the province. However, a number of questions were raised by stakeholders about the impact the model’s design has had on system performance, protocol challenges, and event addressing challenges.”
Many municipalities have entered into agreements with AHS to have their fire services provide Medical First Response (MFR) when AHS paramedics are delayed. However, there is no direct compensation for this service although support for training can be provided by AHS.
In January 2022, the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee was established to address the growing demand for EMS across Alberta. In their Final Report, they made 53 recommendations to improve EMS services in the province. Several of the recommendations addressed MFR.
Recommendation #12 included, “developing strategies to enhance the profile of MFR programs and ensure that community and service delivery partners have an ongoing process for engagement, consultation and advice on the system, including a sustainable funding model.”
Recommendation #13 states that, “If MFR agencies are more effectively structured within the EMS system, then these skilled professionals can be used more effectively. … To bring this about, it is recommended that AHS consult with MFR agencies and AHS EMS leaders to … develop options for funding opportunities to use MFR responders.”
Throughout the Final Report, enhancing and expanding MFR is touted as one of the solutions to improving EMS service across the Province. Funding this important function of EMS service delivery would give municipalities the support they need to remain as part of the program and to possibly take on further responsibilities if service gaps exist.
Rural Municipalities of Alberta members passed the following resolution in November 2022 which has the similar intent and from which this resolution has been modeled:
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Rural Municipalities of Alberta advocate to the Government of Alberta to compensate municipalities that operate a fire service with volunteers or employees that are qualified as Medical First Responders in instances when those volunteers or employees respond to emergencies due to the absence or delay of provincial emergency medical technicians and paramedics in their service area.