Provincial Health Minister Jason Copping was in Airdrie on Thursday morning, accompanied by Mayor Peter Brown. Minister Copping and Mayor Brown were scheduled to tour the Urgent Care Facility in Airdrie.

In comments to Discover Airdrie, Minister Copping said that he came to not only see how the Urgent Care Facility works from an operational standpoint, but also what constraints the staff are working under and how that could be addressed. When asked if Airdronians can expect a hospital at some point in the future, Copping said that the focus of discussions with his municipal counterparts is geared towards a potential expansion of the current urgent care facility in order to better serve the needs of Airdrie's residents, especially since Airdrie's population is continuing to evolve and expand. 

The question of the Premier's recent announcement was also posed to Mr. Copping. On Thursday, March 11th, Premier Jason Kenney made an announcement that Airdrie would be receiving another ambulance next month, as part of the significant increase in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) funding. Copping said that when it comes to the question of staffing, he is not worried that the human resource element will be lacking, citing that there is sufficient staff recruitment that is ongoing. He anecdotally also mentioned that he has heard Airdrie is a great place to settle, hence there should be no problem in finding staff to man the new addition to Airdrie's ambulance fleet.  

Addressing concerns about the fact that an ambulance in Airdrie may not translate to the new resource staying in Airdrie, Minister Copping pointed towards the recent roll-out of the Metro Response Plan, which is part of the AHS 10-point plan. The Metro response plan that was implemented in February has translated to positive results. According to Copping and the provincial government's statistics, Airdrie ambulances driving to Calgary dropped by 43 per cent since the implementation of the Metro Response plan.

In recent weeks the provincial budget that was released, allocated $64-million to increase will help EMS respond to high demand and stress. There is also:

  • $28 million to add more ground ambulances and crews, in addition to sustainable funding for helicopter air ambulance services
  • $22 million to increase capacity, extend ground ambulance contracts and support integrated operations centres and inter-facility transports projects
  • $14 million for the “hours of work” initiative, to address crew fatigue

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