Notebooks and pens were busy in the hands of many of the 25 attendees at MLA RJ SIgurdson's EMS town hall Tuesday evening.
The Okotoks Elks Hall was the first stop on a tour around Alberta by the parliamentary secretary for EMS reform to hear from frontline workers and members of the community on how best to improve the struggling system.
However, due to inclement weather, Sigurdson said an additional meeting would be held in town at a later date to allow attendance from everyone who wished to do so.
"I want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to engage on this process," he said. " I think it's really important that we have a very interactive conversation about what's happening, where we're at, and make sure that we continue to engage so that it's a continuing conversation in the future because we all want to see improvement to EMS."
After outlining the work completed by the Alberta EMS Provincial Advisory Committee and some of the 53 subsequent recommendations that are set to be implemented, the MLA opened the floor to attendees.
Questions raised touched on system structure, funding, recruitment and education, staffing, morale, leadership, privatization and more. There were also harrowing stories.
One woman recounted the experience of a friend who has served for eight years in a large centre.
"She went to work one day and her boss said, 'You have a new partner' and partnerships are incredibly important, because they are life saving, they reinforce each other when you build those kind of long term relationships," said the attendee. "She was put with an [advanced care paramedic] who was transferred. The second day, she asked a question and the fellow blew up in her face, hit her, sexually assaulted her and she ran across the station yelling for help.
"She was told by the supervisor, 'We don't have enough ACPs, we're just going to all have to be a little tolerant about PTSD in this current environment.'"
The woman told another story of a paramedic who had dealt with a bad call and was not provided with the immediate trauma response he needed, ultimately having to stay on for the remainder of the shift because there was no one available to take over. He became withdrawn from his wife and children and used alcohol to cope.
These scenarios aren't unique as other EMTs in attendance told of the suicides of co-workers and friends and the feeling they are not being heard or not able to speak up.
"[Alberta Health Services] has created historically, an environment where people are paranoid, they are disciplined, they are in threat of losing their jobs so they are not speaking," the first attendee said.
Money was also a hot topic – some suggested providing bursaries to encourage students to enrol in the program or an initiative for internationally-trained paramedics similar to what was announced last week for nurses.
In an impassioned plea, a man, who said his wife works as a registered nurse, expressed his distaste with the recently-announced initiative which would see nearly $100 million dedicated to incentivize oil companies to clean up inactive well sites.
"I do not want one single penny of the money going to all the gas companies that are flush with cash, making profits hand over fist last year," he said. "I want that money to go to the people in this room and their colleagues.
"This is unconscionable that Premier Smith is digging in talking about RStar when these people in this room are on the verge of committing suicide and some of them have. This is corporate welfare in place of public welfare and it's got to stop."
Though the discussion went on for nearly two hours, Sigurdson stood firm in his conviction to do better, acknowledging the comments and concerns of every individual who spoke while recognizing obvious faults. He remarked repeatedly that it is his role to improve the system in every capacity, including holding AHS to account.
One individual took the opportunity to recognize how far the system has come in recent months. Drew Parker, a paramedic of 30 years, said changes in leadership, inter-facility transfers and the stepping down of 911 to 811 already have, and will continue to have, a significant impact. It isn't useful to continue to tell "horror stories" he added, saying everyone is well aware the system is broken.
"Support these initiatives; we need to write about these initiatives, we have to promote these initiatives and no more black cloud, it's not helpful," he said.
"The paramedics are going to fix this, we've got to get them back to work and unless they learn of something positive happening, they're not coming."
