A letter released by Alberta Health Services (AHS) Aug. 23 to emergency services personnel in the Calgary region appeared to indicate that Cochrane firefighters would no longer be responding to many emergency medical calls within the town.
The letter states, “Effective Aug. 26, 2013, Cochrane fire department will no longer be providing automatic medical co-response for AHS events, with the exception of Card 29 and Card 34,” — more serious, life-threatening medical calls that fall under delta and echo level events.
The letter, written by Dan Heyde, AHS interim manager for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) suburban rural clinical operations, Calgary zone, goes on to indicate that if additional resources are required for an EMS event within the town of Cochrane, ambulance personnel are to ‘communicate their specific needs through dispatch,’ and if no EMS units are available, or the next closest unit is greater than 20 minutes away, Cochrane Fire Services would then be dispatched.
Cochrane Fire Chief Mac deBeaudrap, however, said there was never any disruption in service to Cochrane residents, and that the change made by AHS to medical calls only has to do with out-of-town co-response.
“Cochrane Fire Services was never not permitted to respond to calls,” said deBeaudrap. “There was a short period of time at the end of August (a day or two) when there was a misunderstanding with fire dispatch about whether or not Cochrane would be automatically dispatched for delta and echo calls. Even during that day or two, we were still dispatched and responded upon request.”
Jared Wallace, a Cochrane firefighter and local International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) president, concurred, saying there was a brief period of time when there ‘may have been an interruption in service’ while the Town of Cochrane and AHS were sorting out the boundaries of the fire department’s response area.
Wallace also confirmed that the policy has been changed with regards to Cochrane’s response in Rocky View County (RVC).
“Residents who live in the portion of RVC that surrounds Cochrane, particularly north of town, should know that additional resources from Cochrane Fire Services will not be automatically sent to assist AHS,” said Wallace. “This is a change from previous practice and it highlights the need for broader fire coverage in Rocky View.”
“Out-of-town response still includes automatic dispatch to automotive accidents, fires and rescue calls within a defined area of the county,” added deBeaudrap, “as well as serious medical calls where AHS has determined that additional resources are required.”
Wallace said that although Cochrane Fire would continue to respond to medical calls within the town in same fashion they have always done, the change in automatic response to all medical calls around Cochrane in the county underscores a need for RVC residents to have this issue addressed by council.
“The layoffs that Rocky View Fire Services has experienced have resulted in a decreased level of service to county residents,” said Wallace. “While we sympathize with those residents, I need to point out that this issue lies exclusively with the county and not the Town of Cochrane.”
