How’s your summer been, EMS? Feeling like your ass has been served on a platter? Trudging through night shifts like a sleep-deprived zombie on autopilot? Ready to burst a blood vessel because leadership seems to be living in a parallel universe where problems don’t even exist? Guess what? We’re feeling it too.
Every long weekend—or even just a regular weekend—feels like a never-ending staffing circus, and you’re the star performer because apparently, no one else bothered to show up after so many paramedics jumped ship and started riding the casual train.
Remember that Stampede fiasco? We thought we’d hit rock bottom with the catastrophic blend of incompetence and indifference from senior leadership. We even thought, “Wow, it can’t possibly get worse than this!” Surprise, surprise! The disaster we thought was the pinnacle of managerial ineptitude was just the opening act. And to our favorite critic: no, this isn’t due to too many vacation approvals, and no, our numbers can’t be disproved; they’re straight from the horse's mouth—you just drank way too much Kool-Aid.
So here’s the scoop: if you’re working in Calgary or Edmonton, brace yourself. The new color code for "We’re out of ambulances" is no longer just "Red Alert"—welcome to the dazzlingly dreadful "Orange Alert." We’re now operating at the same level of chaos we used to reserve for Red Alerts. If you’re waiting for senior leadership to actually fix things, you might as well start knitting a sweater. It’ll be quicker, probably more effective, and at least you’ll end up with something cozy for those long, cold shifts.
It’s come to our attention that AHS decided, after getting roasted by CTV, to take a victory lap, declaring that the system performed excellently and that only one Red Alert was sustained.
This is impressive, and what we’d call assumptive manipulation. It’s morally and ethically reprehensible because it relies on deceit and misdirection to obscure the truth, ultimately betraying public trust. No surprise that this is coming from AHS. When a public entity like Alberta Health Services engages in such manipulation to cover up its own poor performance, it’s not just kicking the problem down the road—it’s building an even grander culture of mistrust between the paramedics who serve and the managers who demand loyalty while propping up a system on the verge of collapse.
If you worked during the Stampede, especially on the weekends, did it really feel like just one Red Alert? Did it seem like the system performed that well?
Let’s review a few key details. Only one Red Alert during the Stampede? And that Red Alert lasted a mere 2.8 minutes? We remember the Stampede too, and trust us, it didn’t feel like a brief intermission. Every glance at REPAC showed little Red Ambulance icons popping up more frequently than in a whack-a-mole game at a carnival. Doesn’t that denote a “Red Alert”? Apparently not. They just get creative when they start to run low on ambulances.
The real kicker is when AHS EMS hits Orange Alert; that’s when they start playing a charming game of “Denial of Services Roulette.” Calls get shuffled into pending limbo, effectively denying service based on the urgency of the request—though temporarily.
And there it is: 648 911 calls were put into pending status, while the city faced a 4, 3, 2, and 1 car alert a staggering 2,186 times, totaling over 14 hours! Yet AHS takes a victory lap because they only had one Red Alert lasting 2.8 minutes. I can only imagine how those 648 people calling for help would feel about this. And let’s not even get started on how paramedics are going to feel about their employer misrepresenting the facts—at their expense and the public's—AGAIN! But hey, at least management looks good, right?
They've even created a policy for such a stunningly risky practice.
On paper, this might sound like a best practice. However, relying on the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) to gauge the severity of emergencies—especially when it’s handled by Emergency Communication Officers who are often constrained—creates a high risk for misjudgment. Dispatchers may not have the clinical expertise to accurately assess complex medical situations, and callers, typically in emotional distress, might describe their situations as reliably as a weather forecast from a fortune cookie. This can lead to misclassified emergencies, resulting in inappropriate responses and compromised patient care.
This isn’t a dig at the dispatchers; it’s a critique of the AHS EMS management’s shocking lack of foresight. They’ve created a situation where they’re relying on two sources—dispatchers and distressed callers—who, through no fault of their own, are unlikely to achieve the necessary precision in high-pressure moments. When has this system ever let a patient down before? Unfortunately, admitting that would mean acknowledging a system held together with little more than hope and duct tape.
For anyone waiting on an ambulance, let’s hope the system isn’t in Orange Alert—because, as we say, orange is the new red. To accurately report to CTV, they should have included both their Red Alert and Orange Alert numbers during sustained periods of four or fewer ambulances on duty. If that’s when they decide not to dispatch ambulances, we will. Now that we understand this new metric for calls going into pending, we can assess AHS EMS’s performance over the summer—or rather, how poorly they performed.
The big takeaway? While paramedics struggle, managers are busy taking victory laps—not for any genuine successes, but for their creative interpretations of the truth, as seen in that follow-up email to CTV. Their cavalier disregard for honesty and integrity raises serious questions about whether accountability should even be a core value of the organization. Perhaps it’s accountability for thee but not for me.
During the Stampede, leadership earned 550 middle fingers from paramedics who left their seats vacant, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The discontent has only grown in the days, weeks, and months since—honestly, all summer long. But did anyone in management notice? Of course not. They’ve known this busy season was coming, just like they know that weekends, especially Friday and Saturday nights, are a complete disaster. Some of our writers have been on the front lines during the summer, and their assessment? FUBAR.
Meanwhile, managers seem blissfully unaware, remaining ensconced in their cushy offices until "leadership", and their zone managers head off to charm town, county, and city councils with grand plans—if the data that is presented by them, and the data we attain via FOIP requests is compared it can only be presumed that something stinks. Perhaps steering the ship in a different direction a few years ago would have been wise, but “steady as she goes” seems to be their only strategy, counting on the staff to soak up more overtime. How’s that working out?
The staff have spoken loud and clear: paramedics are fed up with the current state of the EMS system. Need more proof? Managers and supervisors are reading these posts. Did the paramedics who worked tirelessly during the Stampede even receive a thank you? The resounding answer, with few exceptions, is no. We’ve even heard of a supervisor who couldn’t be bothered to congratulate a paramedic who retired after 45 years of dedicated service—yes, that supervisor reads these posts, too.
Adding insult to injury, it’s been brought to our attention through Ryan Middleton that the number of hours worked by paramedics has been steadily declining year over year. And while AHS boasts about adding new ambulances to the system, they conveniently omit the fact that many of those ambulances are just sitting vacant and parked. It’s a classic case of misdirection, where the reality of the situation starkly contrasts with the narrative being sold to the public.
What’s more, paramedics have lost interest in being ambassadors for this profession and organization. The Stampede Parade is an excellent example of this, where over a quarter of the parade's staffing (33 people) had to come from assistant supervisors and clinical educators. Of those 33, they had to borrow 4 paramedics from other zones!
Did they try to augment the important part of the Stampede—the actual ambulances—with outside medics? No. They just hoped for the best. Like they have been doing for five years as the ship crumbles and falls apart; however, AHS will move mountains to avoid looking bad in the PR spotlight. When it comes to actually putting paramedics in seats where they’re needed, leadership doesn’t seem to care. This was on full display again over the Labor Day weekend during Pride Day events, where mostly assistant supervisors and public education officers were used to boost AHS’s presence while reports indicated only 15 or fewer ambulances were on duty at times.
Well, folks, it looks like Alberta's health care system is about to embark on a new chapter—one brimming with unexpected opportunities. Premier Smith and Health Minister LaGrange have, whether intentionally or not, handed us a golden chance to reboot our beleaguered EMS system. With their bold plan to shift hospital operations away from Alberta Health Services (AHS) and into the hands of Covenant Health, we’re presented with a rare moment to overhaul not just hospital management, but the entire emergency medical services landscape.
And who knows? Maybe this change can come with a side of honesty. After all, we’ve uncovered so many instances of managerial fibs that one might think they were auditioning for a role in a soap opera! Imagine if our leaders actually embraced the truth instead of treating it like a hot potato they’re desperate to avoid. If we can get some genuine transparency in the mix, it might just be the refreshing change we need—because let’s face it, “alternative facts” have become all too familiar in this system!
Let’s be honest: AHS has become synonymous with bureaucratic blunders and mismanagement. It’s been a slow-motion disaster where red tape and executive missteps are the norm rather than the exception. It’s truly a sight to behold—executive directors reporting to other executive directors, like some bizarre game of “who’s in charge?” Meanwhile, they thought it was a brilliant idea to increase the number of clinical supervisors just as the number of full-time staff plummeted right along side with casual staff ranks swelling. Because who needs frontline workers when you can have an endless chain of management, right? As the government introduces Covenant Health to manage rural hospitals, why stop there? This is the perfect opportunity to finally give Alberta’s EMS system a fresh start.
Imagine this: a new home for EMS, free from the dysfunction that has plagued AHS. A chance to clean house, start anew, and cut through the morass of outdated practices and inept leadership that has hindered our emergency services. Covenant Health’s new role in the health care sector could serve as the catalyst for a much-needed shake-up. It’s not just about who runs the hospitals; it’s about who oversees Emergency Medical Services—and those managers who have turned EMS into the laughing stock of Alberta's emergency services capacity should be unceremoniously fired without anyone giving their Royal Roads university educations a second thought. Thanks for the nearly two decades of turmoil; now, it’s time to go.
However, while we dream of a fresh start, let’s be clear: this reformation must be rooted in public service. Yes, there’s certainly a place for private operators when it comes to non-urgent transfers—like transporting that “urgent” case a surgical consult, that follow up eye appointment or the visit with a surgeon to talk about a patients recovery that just cannot conceivably be done over tele-health and must be transported. If Alberta Health Services demands that they want to be inept at best practice patient care that is their business, but when lives are on the line, let’s keep our emergency services in public hands. Privatization may seem like a tempting quick fix, but history has shown us that when it comes to essential services like EMS, public oversight is vital to ensure that quality and accessibility aren’t sacrificed at the altar of profit.
In this unexpected twist of fate, let’s turn the government’s blundering attempts at reform into an opportunity. Let’s not waste this chance to cut through the nonsense and build an EMS system that serves Albertans efficiently and effectively—while ensuring it remains firmly in the public domain. After all, if we’re going to endure this circus of mismanagement, we might as well turn it into a parade of progress, with a system that puts people before profits.
Aside from out conclusion we want to thank you for reading, and if you are curious to see how AHS responds to the news that we've discovered how they are hiding red Alerts follow our instagram page as we will be posting their follow up comment there. We also want to ask that you consider a donation to our give send go(https://www.givesendgo.com/GC4M8). Even a dollar helps, and FOIP requests have been getting increasingly more expensive as much of this seems to be information that Alberta Health Services does not want to give up easily. Finally, if you are reading this from another zone we still want you to join us. We are still looking for North, Edmonton, Central and South Zone Paramedics to join our team. Email us at Ambulanceman4@gmail.com
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