The province s health authority has already spent over $10 million preparing to take over ambulance

The province s health authority has already spent over $10 million preparing to take over ambulance dispatch in Calgary, although Alberta s Health Minister Stephen Mandel says he won t green light the project until city concerns the move will result in slower response cheap disney world tickets times and poorer cheap disney world tickets co-ordination with firefighters and police are addressed.
A senior official with Alberta Health Services confirmed 30 staff have been hired, equipment is being installed into freshly rented quarters, and plans are proceeding to move into the facility next month as they prepare to assume duties for EMS crews at the city s 911 centre.
But in the wake of sharp criticism last week by Mayor Naheed Nenshi of AHS s competency, Mandel said in an interview there s no timetable or final decision yet about whether the health authority will cancel a $14.8-million-a-year contract with Calgary and begin its own ambulance dispatch for the city and most of southern Alberta.
The jobs of 46 emergency medical dispatchers would be affected if and when AHS gives the required six months notice to terminate its contract with the city, but the official in charge of Calgary s integrated fire, police and ambulance dispatch facility said that s not why he s concerned.
If medically related calls are handled separately, Cmdr. Richard Hinse said he s worried about the efficient co-ordination of all three services for 11,000 incidents a year when all three services need to be at the scene of incidents like major vehicle crashes and violent crimes.
He said the new dispatch centre will use trained paramedics and emergency medical technicians alongside trained card readers to better judge what patients cheap disney world tickets can be treated at home or a clinic and which ones are ill enough to need immediate transport to an acute care facility.
After a frustrated Nenshi said last week that AHS poor track record in managing the health-care system was among a million reasons not to proceed with the takeover, Mandel s press secretary Steve Buick insisted the province would still forge ahead.
Darren Sandbeck, AHS chief paramedic, said the authority has rented quarters for the new facility, hired over 30 emergency communications officers and is in the midst of installing computer-aided dispatch, radio and phone systems.
He said the worries of city officials were not warranted because hundreds of calls are already transferred each day in the province from 911 operators to AHS dispatchers without incident and that the authority s new computer system will automatically and promptly notify cheap disney world tickets the city s fire and police dispatch when they are required at an incident.
Elisabeth Ballerman, president of the Health Services Association of Alberta that represents paramedics at the health authority, said it s unclear if Calgarians should expect improved service from a stand-alone facility.
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