Two weeks ago, we asked readers if they believed the Barrhead Fire Services (BFS) should continue to go on medical first responder calls.
Or more accurately medical first responder assist calls where they are called upon at the request of the Alberta Health Services (AHS).
Looking at the results published in our June 13 issue, it would seem that the majority believes the practice should end.
Out of the 45 people who responded to our online poll, 53.3 per cent voted against continuing the practice — 42.2 per cent said they were in favour, while 4.4 per cent were undecided.
We believe the BFS should continue to respond to these calls and so do both municipal councils along with the fire department itself. The problem, we and the rest of these groups have, is even at the best of times when the service, is deemed necessary, it is a drain in resources. Whether it is in the time and energy of our firefighters or money.
This drain is even more difficult to take when, they are as fire chief John Whittaker calls them nuisance calls. Calls when AHS ambulance crews ask for assistance in loading a patient that they, could have loaded in all likelihood themselves.
So far most of the discussion, at least on the council, has concentrated on the money aspects reducing cost occurred to the municipalities, by lobbying government and AHS directly or indirectly through Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) and the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC).
Perhaps it is time to revisit the possibility of weeding out unnecessary call outs to fire departments. Yes this would seem to be problematic and it is something our local fire chief has attempted through discussions with AHS.
However, perhaps it is time to readdress the issue, but this time by legislation or regulation. Recently the province passed, in our opinion, a much needed overhaul of the both the Employment Standards Code and the Labour Relations Code through Bill 17.
From our understanding, and observation from listening to the scanner, many of the calls the fire department receives from AHS are lift assists. Basically this means ambulance crews believe they need the added brawn to physically lift a patient onto the gurney and into the ambulance.
Part of the reason is ambulance crews are limited by provincial regulations by how much they are allowed to lift. Not that we want ambulance crews to put themselves at risk, but maybe it is time to reexamine the amount of allowable weight a person can lift. Or perhaps add another member to ambulance crews. Overall that might be more cost effective than calling upon fire departments, which by default have to send out multiple people in vehicles that are expensive to run.
It is something to consider.
