The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is committed to having an ambulance permanently stationed in either Warman or Martensville by November, 2021.
The ambulance will be part of the Medavie fleet and will initially provide coverage 12 hours per day. The service will expand to 24 hours per day as of March, 2022.
Krista Remeshylo, SHA Director of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Central, said in an interview September 1 that the decision by SHA to station an ambulance in either Warman or Martensville is aimed at providing quicker paramedic response times in the region north of Saskatoon.
She said a decision on which city will house the permanent base for the ambulance will be made in the coming weeks.
“We are still in the process of gathering input and information to determine the best location,” said Remeshylo, who is also SHA director responsible for the provincial medical First Responder program. “The decision on where the ambulance will be located will be made very soon.”
The decision by SHA to permanently station an ambulance in one of the two cities north of Saskatoon comes a year after a four-month pilot project was launched in November, 2020 to have a 24-hour ambulance based in the Warman and Martensville fire halls on alternate weeks. The pilot project never got off the ground because one of the conditions was that there had to be a ‘free’ ambulance available that was not needed in the City of Saskatoon. During that four month period last winter, all Medavie’s ambulances were in use virtually around the clock.
Funding for that pilot project was provided by the provincial government as part of a $2.9 million investment, announced in September, 2020, to hire additional paramedic staff.
Although the pilot project did not unfold as planned, the heavy demand on volunteer medical first responders, and the growing need for additional ambulance service in the region convinced the SHA and provincial government of the need for better coverage.
In April, 2021, as part of the provincial budget, the Ministry of Health committed an additional $6.6 million for EMS services in Saskatoon and Regina. A portion of those funds are now being allocated to cover staffing costs for 12-hour ambulance service based in Warman, Martensville and other communities in the region.
In June, 2021, the SHA held a meeting with elected representatives and emergency responders from Warman, Martensville, Dalmeny, Osler, Hepburn, Borden, Langham, and the RMs of Corman Park, Laird and Great Bend. At that meeting, the SHA announced its intention to have a permanent ambulance base providing 12-hour coverage beginning in November, 2021 in either Warman or Martensville.
Remeshylo said it is possible the permanent base could be expanded in the future to include two ambulances, but that will depend on future funding from the province.
“There has always been a significant need in the area because of population growth,” said Remeshylo. “There is also a significant, and growing, population in Saskatoon. It’s important to balance resources and make sure we have them in the right place at the right time.
“With this latest budget, funding has been provided to establish a permanent ambulance base, instead of just a pilot project.”
Remeshylo said it costs about $1 million annually to staff an ambulance 24 hours a day. The SHA is providing funds to cover staffing costs. Medavie Ambulance, a privately-owned firm, is covering the capital and operating cost of the ambulance itself.
“The ambulance based in either Martensville or Warman will be part of the overall Medavie fleet,” said Remeshylo. “We are working with Medavie to determine how that resource will be implemented.”
She said while the ambulance will be based in either Warman or Martensville, it will not be limited to providing service only to those communities. It will be dispatched to respond to emergencies, including within the City of Saskatoon, wherever and whenever it is needed.
She said the province has medical communication and coordination centres in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina. Medical dispatchers utilize a proven international universal triage system to determine emergency priority calls and send out available EMS resources accordingly.
Automated vehicle locators are also being installed in all ambulances across the province so dispatchers can quickly determine the location of all ambulances in real time.
“We are implementing an ambulance response protocol so that the closest available ambulance can be quickly dispatched to where it is needed, regardless of whether it is inside its defined coverage area or not,” said Remeshylo. “In other words, if an ambulance from Prince Albert or Rosthern, for example, happens to be travelling back to its base after delivering a patient in Saskatoon, it can be dispatched to a nearby emergency if needed.
“We have to use our resources for the greater good of everyone,” she said.
Remeshylo said the SHA is working with volunteer medical first responders in the communities in an effort to prevent burn-out.
“Once there is a permanent resource based in the area, that could mean we may not have to wake them up in the middle of the night if we can have an ambulance there faster. We want to definitely decrease the workload on volunteers because we value very highly our First Responders in this province.”
Remeshylo said the COVID-19 pandemic has added pressure to the EMS system in the region.
“Over the last 18 months, we’ve been continually monitoring and adjusting the services we provide in order to make improvements, including working to reduce time for transfer care and off-loading patients at hospitals to get ambulances back in service,” she said.