Airdrie's new ambulance unit, revealed during an Alberta government announcement committing an additional $64 million to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) funding on March 10, will start serving the community next month.
According to Alberta Health Services (AHS) spokesperson James Wood, EMS will be adding a Basic Life Support unit to Airdrie's fleet of ambulances, and crews have been assigned to it.
"This ambulance will operate 16 hours a day, Monday to Friday, (excluding stat holidays) [from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to midnight] and will begin service April 25, 2022," Wood said in an email.
The primary focus of the new ambulance will be Inter-Facility Transfers (IFT), though Wood added it will play a dual response role for both IFTs and 911 emergency responses, as needed.
Adding an IFT ambulance will benefit patients in Airdrie as it will assist in keeping Airdrie ambulances available for calls from local patients, Wood added.
"It is important to note that ambulances, while they may be based in one area, are not allocated for the exclusive service of that area only," he said. "Ambulances are a provincial resource that is assigned or relocated based on demand."
Even so, Wood added EMS has seen short-term success by implementing the Metro Response Plan, which is designed to assist in keeping ambulances close to their home base. He claimed EMS has reported a 43 per cent reduction in Airdrie ambulances coming into the city of Calgary "and the early data shows this downward trend is continuing."
