Data shows Alberta 911 call centres 'in crisis mode,' union says

Documents obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information (FOI) request show that more than 12 per cent of scheduled shifts at Alberta's AHS-run 911 call centres went unfilled over the first four months of the year.

The union representing workers in the centres says the data is representative of a system — and its workers — in "full-crisis mode."

Alberta Health Services (AHS), which manages the system, said 911 call centres are dealing with the same, sustained increase in demand as the rest of the EMS system, which is 30 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.

Turnover, fatigue and position vacancy are seen as the primary causes, which affect many professions across the medical system, according to an AHS statement.

AHS says it's implementing its 10-point plan to increase system-wide capacity, which includes hiring 28 new emergency communications officers this summer.

The data obtained by CBC News shows that over the first four months of this year, more than 12 per cent of scheduled shifts went unstaffed — and there were several days when more than one in five shifts went unfilled.

The requested data contained the number of scheduled emergency communications officers (ECO) for a given date and the number of shifts that went unfilled for the first four months of 2022. ECOs are those operators who answer calls in one of Alberta's three provincial 911 call centres — in Calgary, Edmonton and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo — when an ambulance is needed.

"These communications officers are in a crisis mode. And it's that hidden workforce, unfortunately, you don't see them out on the street responding to 911 calls," said Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), the union representing Alberta's 911 call centre employees.

Often 911 operators are the start of a chain of health-care providers that Albertans come into contact with when seeking emergency medical care, Parker said, but they may go unnoticed in the hours-long wait it can take to receive care in an emergency.

The significant staffing shortages are indicative of a wider problem of underfunding, absenteeism and burnout that is ultimately unsustainable, he said.

CBC News analyzed the data and found some key information that highlights the ongoing stresses on a system pushed to the limit. Some key findings include:

Though the numbers alone are a concern to the union, they obscure a deeper problem within the 911 call centres in Alberta, according to Parker. The data shows every 24-hour period on a given date but don't detail individual shifts throughout the day, which may be even more severely understaffed.

Greater levels of absenteeism can be seen when looking at individual call centres. Each call centre has multiple days when one-quarter or more of workers are off. 

One day in January, the northern call centre had 5½ out of nine scheduled shifts left unstaffed. There were a dozen days when 40 per cent — or more — of shifts were unfilled at the northern call centre.