British Columbia's Health Services Minister has announced plans to revamp that province's ambulance service model. British Columbia Ambulance Service will be transferred to the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA). The PHSA operates provincial health agencies and specialized services and programs (such as transplant and cancer agencies) that operate across the province. Although BCAS has operated as a provincial ambulance service for more than 30 years now, this move more closely aligns BC's pre-hospital services with the health care system.
In 2008, Alberta announced the amalgamation of ambulances services in that province under the single authority of Alberta Health Services (AHS). AHS is responsible for overseeing the planning and delivery of health services and supports across Alberta to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of publicly-funded health care.
In Manitoba, ambulance services are the responsibility of our 11 Regional Health Authorities. Although Manitoba’s ambulance and paramedic services have undergone significant growth and evolution over the past decade, regional differences in administration and operations have made it difficult to provide consistent, high quality prehospital emergency health care throughout Manitoba. Our system still lacks necessary efficiencies and accountabilities, and has widely variable levels of performance across the province. The most obvious solution would seem to lie in province-wide approach to delivering ambulance services.
The Regional Health Authorities of Manitoba (RHAM) is the corporate umbrella organization that serves Manitoba's 11 RHAs for the purpose of coordinating activities on a regional basis. RHAM exists "to foster the development of an efficient and effective interregional health care delivery system". Sounds very much like the roles of the Provincial Health Services Authority in BC and the AHS in Alberta.
An operating division such as EMS could be established within RHAM that would oversee the delivery of ambulance services across all regions, ensuring more coordinated and consistent service delivery while assuring the needs of the member RHAs are met. At the risk of oversimplifying this transition, it would be as easy as ensuring decisions related to EMS operations are made in the RHAM Boardroom rather than 11 different boardrooms across the province. Further evolution would undoubtedly unfold from there.
I think it's time for Manitoba to follow suit and give serious consideration to a province-wide ambulance service model.
