While applauding the announcement of a new ambulance base in Martensville, the Mayor of Warman says his city also needs one.
In a news release issued November 8, Warman Mayor Gary Philipchuk said improved ambulance service is critically important.
The Ministry of Health has announced Martensville as the recipient of a regional ambulance base run by Medavie Health Services West.
The Ministry announced this will improve ambulance services and response times in communities north of Saskatoon (Warman, Martensville, Borden, Dalmeny, Hepburn, Langham and Osler) starting this month. The service will be available 12 hours/day in November, and 24 hours/day in March 2022.
The City of Warman has been a leader in working to obtain this regional ambulance service and recognizes the importance of mirroring the growth of healthcare services and population in the region.
“We’re thankful to soon have at least one base in our region. However, we are admittedly disappointed to not be that recipient,” said City of Warman Mayor, Gary Philipchuk. “We felt the numbers built a strong case to secure this for our city. That being said I also understand, from a logistics perspective, the province chose a centralized location for this region.”
With 12 hours/day of service until March 2022 for a widespread region of approximately 30,000 people, the City of Warman feels this still doesn’t fully address the issue of response times for our residents.
“While our region definitely needs this ambulance service, we recognized from the start of this process that a base should have been awarded to Warman and Martensville, not one or the other,” Mayor Philipchuk said. “With our continued rapid growth, we recognize – sooner than later – Warman will desperately need our own base to allow our residents to receive sufficient ambulatory services.”
The fastest-growing city in the country, as of the 2016 census, is now the lone Saskatchewan city without an ambulance base.