Common Sense is my Super PowerPolitical interference. Alberta health services is supposed to be arms length from the government. Firing the board and appointing an administrator who reports directly to Smith and Copping removes the veneer of independence. (Although it is not the first time a Conservative government has played this card).
I don't have a great deal of faith in having a 911 operator triage health care needs. Ontario recently started shipping people across the province if they needed a long term bed. This fractured support systems and made life harder for patients. Alberta seems to be on the same road as they plan to transfer surgeries across the province and push towards private suppliers paid by the public purse.
Paul Sullivan 🇨🇦@CommonSense A study in Toronto found 57% of 911 calls were not emergencies. Without triage, how can the system cope?
@PaulSullivan A 911 dispatcher does not have the expertise or training to triage nuances of medical situations. A flow chart is insufficient. There are a lot of folks who are reluctant to call 911 even in a critical situation today.
Current levels of triage at 911 lead to the death of an 80 year old Calgary woman earlier this year when they decided EMS wasn't necessary.
What's next - using high school graduates to perform triage in the emergency room?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/dog-attack-capitol-hill-calgary-fatal-1.6481058
@PaulSullivan
Quite often situations turn from bad to worse in transit to a hospital. Issues are not always clear - take early stages of anaphylaxis, during a stroke or even a heart attack. You don't want these folks in the back seat of an Uber when a situation takes a turn for the worse.
I will agree, however, that there is misuse of the 911 call center as folks use the number to report a delayed transit bus, but these calls are already appropriately dealt with.
@CommonSense I'm not suggesting we compromise safety, but clearly things aren't working well now. We don't send a $13M Stars air ambulance to every situation. I've heard from paramedics who are frustrated to be called upon to taxi non-serious patients to imaging clinics for example. And unfortunately it's places like my area (Cochrane) who suffer when ambulances are then redirected to higher density areas like Calgary to cover the shortfall.
@CommonSense It was a terrible tragedy. My understanding was that it was initially reported as a "dog bite" which triggers a different level of response than was obviously needed. Right now calls are all triaged into 5 categories. I can tell you I wouldn't be waiting for an ambulance unless I was clearly Purple or Red (immediately life threatening).