Yorkton, Sask.’s ambulance service has been scaled back, with the changes in line with a sustainable model under new ownership.

The changes happened in April when Crestvue Ambulance took over. That’s when Yorkton went from four ambulances with three staff members 24 hours a day, to three ambulances with two staffed members.

That third person before the change was considered “on-call,” but was called in every day.

“Currently we are funded for three ambulances,” said Kelly Prime, paramedic chief for Crestvue ambulance.

“One of those ambulances is always at the base, 24 hours a day. It has a day shift and a night shift. There are two other [ambulances] and those are 24 hours [a day] on call.”

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Prime said there are eight full-time staff members on a rotation. Two work full-time while six cover the on-call cars, and if a service call is outside of the city, two other staff members are called in to cover the city.

Prime added that no one was laid off through the transition and funding from the Saskatchewan Health Authority has not changed.

Lisa Thompson, spokesperson with SHA said they’re “confident that Crestvue Ambulance will continue to meet the needs of the residents of Yorkton and surrounding area.”

Prime stepped into his new role on April 1. Since then, he said, his plate has been full, trying to better manage funds and resources.

“There is a lot of work. We have a lot of reconfiguration and redesign we need to do in order to deploy and staff the ambulances to meet guidelines,” he said.

“The previous owner was actually supplying a fourth ambulance that he was not contracted for, which was putting some financial hardship on the organization.”

Prime said the previous owner was only trying to protect the residents better in overstaffing, adding, “he felt that he needed to do that for the community’s sake. And he’s right, this community could absolutely use a fourth ambulance. However, the way that it was staffed, it wasn’t sustainable.”

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“It was putting too much pressure on the organization and other things were suffering because of that.”

Rod MacKenzie, executive director of provincial services community care with the SHA, said with the change from four ambulances to three in Yorkton, they “don’t have any concerns,” and there are further changes coming in the form of “performance-based contracts.”

“We amalgamated all the former health regions into one health authority a while ago,” he explained. “Part of our review in EMS is taking a look at the 107 ambulance services we have in the province right now, to see where we actually need them and what level of service we need them at.”

Yorkton is yet to be reviewed by SHA, as Prime “solidifies his operations and gathers data,” according to MacKenzie.

“What we’re trying to look at now is: ‘What do we truly need in this new era?’ There is a complete review going on right now.”

MacKenzie noted that Swift Current is an example of a community they’re trying to move up from what they refer to as “basic life support” to “advanced life support.”

He said part of the review is sifting through different databases which have been collected and organized differently. The completion of the review could be two or three months away.

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Prime said due to the financial strain of Yorkton EMS’s previous operations, the service quality was not at its highest, but getting things to a higher standard is a task he’s taken on.

“We want to re-align the operations to what we are contracted for and get these paramedics the tools they deserve because we have some great paramedics that work for Yorkton. They just need the tools and opportunity to care at the best of their ability.”

Prime said that re-alignment means putting out no more emergency service or resources than what is feasible and under contract. He said if there is an extra need, there will be a review done on a case-by-case basis.

Of the 107 ambulance services in Saskatchewan, 51 are owned by SHA, 37 are privately contracted for profit, 14 are not for profit, and two are First Nations.

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