Grande Prairie City Council will be advocating the province for additional funding to support the Grande Prairie Fire Department’s idea for a new “Fire-Paramedic Response Unit.”
GPFD Chief Mark VanWerkhoven says after being directed by the city to come back with some options, his department determined the most beneficial to the GPFD would be a new firefighting/paramedic vehicle to take some of the strain off of both departments.
The Fire-Paramedic Response Unit will operate by having an Advanced Care Paramedic and a firefighter together in an SUV to provide what VanWerkhoven describes as a “higher level of care” while fire crews await EMS’ arrival.
“What we’re finding on occasion is that when the EMS system is challenged, and the demand is exceeding the available EMS resources or those resources are responding for places outside the city, we’re finding our fire trucks and our firefighters are on scene for an extended period of time providing that initial care,” he says. “This provides us with a means to provide that care at a higher level while ensuring our core firefighter resources are available to deploy to other high-priority incidents within the city.”
The Fire Chief maintains that this project is something that could be completed within a year, and has a lower initial cost than some of the other options presented. He says the project would see no cost from the taxpayer in Grande Prairie; however, the new model would only move forward depending on available funding from the province.
“We currently receive some level of funding for our medical response program to the tune of around $130,000 last year, we anticipate we’ll receive that again for the next couple of years, they’ve committed to a three-year funding cycle,” he says.
Should the province only provide partial funding, or none at all, the city has kept the door open to explore options during a budget discussion in the future.