Edmonton hopes to reduce number of medical calls firefighters take
Edmonton Fire and Rescue Services responds to more medical calls than other major Canadian cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Calgary. The city is trying to change that, but the union says the proposed measures are not enough.
In a report going before city council’s community and public services committee on Monday, city administration said the number of medical calls firefighters respond to has grown by 82 per cent from 2018 to last year.
City administration has provided a number of measures in the report to reduce this number, which includes investing in a fleet truck that would respond to medical calls.
They also propose an action plan that includes only responding to only immediately life-threatening medical calls, relying on Alberta Health Services’ medical teams in high-frequency areas, modifying their pre-alert system — which is when they dispatch a car before knowing the kind of emergency it is — to only dispatching when the need is known.
But Greg Rehman, president of Edmonton Fire Fighters’ Union, does not believe these measures are enough to help. Whether it’s fire, medical, hazmat or rescue, the calls the service are getting have collectively increased.
“The city is growing… so it would be expected that demand for our services would go up with that increased growth. So the question we always ask is, is reducing the service to the public, is that the answer?” he told CBC’s Edmonton AM on Friday.
Rehman said he was hoping the city would try and secure funding from the province to help cover fire and rescue costs because he believes there needs to be a long term plan for their organization to match the city’s growth.
“If we don’t have that plan and continue to move forward, eventually we’re going to have to have that build and growth, and that could potentially cost even more in the long run,” he said.
In an email, EFRS wrote, “Edmonton Fire Rescue Services would like to present this report to the community and public services committee and receive feedback from them before commenting.”
EFRS responds to medical calls because its members have Advanced First Aid training.
The report states that 69 per cent of calls Edmonton firefighters respond to are medical in nature, compared to Calgary where 62 per cent of the calls are medical ones, Toronto where it’s 61 per cent. In Vancouver, 48 per cent of fire calls are medical, and in Ottawa, it’s 20 per cent.
Vancouver and Calgary have light fleet medical vehicles. That two cities also only respond to immediately life-threatening and time-critical calls.
In the report, city administration stated that 30 per cent of the calls that Edmonton Fire responds to are not immediately life-threatening or time-critical.
The city hopes the action plan, which requires no additional funding and can be implemented within the next few months, will bring some capacity to firefighters and help the city evaluate whether additional resources are needed.
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