In the first three months of 2022, the average monthly response times for Airdrie’s ambulances responding to emergencies inside Airdrie, encompassing all emergency events from Alpha to Echo, oscillated between 10 and 15 minutes, while the maximum response times, meaning the longest average times Airdrie EMS took to respond to an event in a given month ranged from 18 minutes to over an hour. The hour-long wait was for a “Delta” event in March 2022, which is a call that is deemed, “Life-threatening of highest priority (cardiac arrest, respiratory difficulty/arrest, etc.)"

According to documents received by Discover Airdrie via a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act request (FOIP 2022-G-097), if one were to compare the first three months of 2022: January, February, and March to previous years, the average response times for the past seven years for the month January for Alpha events have stayed consist between 10 and 15 minutes, with 15 minutes being the longest average response time.

That response time was recorded in January of this year. It should be noted, that according to the data, it, "represents the unit response interval for units stationed in Airdrie responding to an event in Airdrie.  This does not represent the response interval for events in the City of Airdrie nor does it represent the response interval for the events the Airdrie units responded to as there may have been non-Airdrie units that arrived on the scene earlier."

A similar pattern can be observed with Bravo, Charlie, and Delta events. From 2014 onwards, the monthly average response times hovered between eight and 12 minutes. However, the longest average response times for each emergency classification were recorded in January of 2022. The only emergency response that saw a shorter average response time was for Echo events. In January 2021, the average response time for an echo event inside Airdrie was 12 minutes and 10 seconds. In 2022, that response was nine minutes and six seconds. 

February for Alpha emergency events between 2014 and 2022 was more unpredictable as the average response times were anywhere from nine minutes to 14 minutes. In 2022, the average response time for an alpha event was close to 11 minutes, which is a slight improvement from 2021.  

Bravo emergency events between 2014 and 2022 were anywhere from 9 minutes to over 11 minutes. The longest average response time was recorded in February 2022, clocking in at 13 minutes and 34 seconds. 

Charlie events stayed relatively static with response times ranging from eight minutes to 11 minutes. The longest recorded average response time was in 2018, at almost 12 minutes. 

Delta events saw little change over the past seven years. In 2022, the average response time in February was 10 minutes and 3 seconds, while the year previous the response time was 10 minutes.  

For the most serious emergencies, echo events saw a rather significant increase in response times. In February 2014, the response time to an echo event was six minutes and 33 seconds. By 2020 that response time was 10 minutes and 30 seconds. In 2021 that response time clocked in at 12 minutes 10 seconds. However, in 2022 the response time dropped back down to nine minutes. 

Between March 2014 and 2022 Alpha, emergency response times were steady and March 2022 averaged 10 minutes and 15 seconds. However, when it came to Bravo emergencies during the same time period March 2022 had the longest response times at 11 minutes and 38 seconds, 4 minutes longer than the year previous. 

Delta emergency response times for March 2014 to 2022 remained stable, and March 2022 saw a 10-minute and 26-second wait, which was slightly longer than the year previous, while 2018 recorded the longest response time at 11 minutes and 38 seconds. 

Echo emergencies from March 2014 till March 2022 saw the largest jumps. In 2014 the average response time was eight minutes. That dropped in 2015 to five minutes and 30 seconds, but by 2019 the number more than doubled to 14 minutes. However, in 2022, the average response time was nine minutes, which was slightly longer than in 2021, which recorded an average of 11 minutes.  

Thus far in 2022, the longest response time to any event was to a Bravo event in February 2022, which was one hour and 28 minutes. That is the longest time that it took Airdrie EMS to arrive since 2014. The longest response time to an echo event, the gravest of emergencies, in Airdrie was recorded in September 2021, with an hour-long response time. The hour-long response time was the longest time to respond to an echo event in seven years, since 2014.  

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