A Medicine Hat firefighter peers through a window at a damaged Bridge Street four-plex on April 21. Efforts to ensure city firefighters are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 are ongoing.-- NEWS FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
An off-again on-again effort to get firefighters vaccinated in Medicine Hat is moving forward, say local officials who report few of the same problems cropping up elsewhere in the province.
That includes complaints that Alberta Health Services and some pharmacy clinics aren’t always accepting letters proving employment as medical first responder, as required by the Alberta Ministry of Health.
“We did issue letters to all of our suppression members,” said Medicine Hat Fire Service Chief Brian Stauth. “There’s been some mixed results, but there’s also a lot of positive commentary from across the province.”
The local letters prove employment for individuals as part of a brokered solution between the province’s health ministry and fire chiefs and unions. Those groups argued that firefighters who perform medical first response should be included in priority professions outlined in vaccine rollout phase 2C.
Stauth said his office provided a letter to all active suppression staff and contacted a local pharmacy to certify the letters would be accepted.
A number were vaccinated before supply issues caused a slowdown, and focus on those with priority health conditions.
Now, said Stauth, he understands that MHFS workers are being slotted in, though his office is not tracking uptake.
Earlier this year, local emergency management officials announced they believed fire service personnel would be included in a priority professions phase and they are often dispatched by AHS to provide on-scene medical attention when they are closer than an ambulance.
That turned out to be not the case as specific qualification required certification from the college of paramedics.
City council debated lobbying the provincial government for reconsideration and eventually voted in favour after a 5-4 vote.
Isolation scare
Stauth also told the News that manpower was strained last weekend while crews from two stations were forced to isolate overnight while awaiting the results of COVID testing.
All were negative, and returned to active duty the following day after two other crews were brought on from off-hours to fill the shift.
“We really cautioned on the side of safety and we brought them right back the next night,” said Stauth. “We weren’t ever really in a pickle.”
The shift switch was needed after one employee tested positive and tracing showed they spent time in two different stations the previous day.
