Jasper’s ambulance dispatch services will shift to Peace River, as part of a province-wide consolidation to three dispatch centres in Alberta. The three dispatch centres are in Calgary, Edmonton and Peace River. 

Jasper is one of 14 dispatch providers in the province that still needs to transition, and AHS has been directed by the health minister to complete the remaining transitions as soon as possible. The goal is to have dispatch consolidations complete by the end of December.

On Wednesday, May 8, Garland held the first meeting in Jasper about moving toward dispatch consolidation. Garland is executive director of EMS dispatch, Communications and Development at Alberta Health Services. Representatives from Parks (including dispatch supervisor Patrick Harvey), Associated Ambulance, the municipality, Seton Healthcare Centre and other members from Alberta Health Services attended the meeting.

“This is not a discussion about if or why, this is about how,” Garland told the stakeholders. “[AHS has] done a number of these [transitions] and gained a lot of experience of how the process can work to benefit the community and meet the objective of AHS.”

AHS works with their stakeholders through a template charter that can be customized for each community. Jill Thordarson, director of North Communications Centre (NCC) for AHS, will lead stakeholders through developing the charter for Jasper.

In order to outline the charter, one of the required discussions is deciding what constitutes a backcountry rescue, so Peace River dispatchers will be in the loop, said Thordarson.

After the transition, Harvey will notify Peace River dispatch to send an ambulance instead of dispatching one himself, like he does now. Parks dispatch is still fielding calls, so if a backcountry rescue is needed, the call will not even go to Peace River, said Garland.

If an ambulance is required, Parks dispatch can notify Peace River dispatch to send one.