New Brand, Same Failures
In case anyone missed it, the new brand identity was unveiled for Alberta EMS last week. We now have a new name, new logo and new uniforms. Unfortunately, underneath all this fanfare and excitement is a depressing reality that we continue to live in.
So far this month:
- another patient died in an Emergency Department waiting room
- an Edmonton ambulance took 16 minutes to respond to a cardiac arrest because there was no closer unit.
- Our fellow paramedics at several integrated fire departments are facing the threat of layoffs due to EMS funding decisions
- Edmonton Paramedics continue to face unrelenting pressure to leave patients in hospital waiting rooms to get back on the road
- Overall morale continues to be low as paramedics struggle with a crushing workload, lack of support, and lack of resources
Let's get real about why none of this is being addressed.
Our entire public healthcare system is relying on expensive consultants who don't know anything about healthcare.
Ernst and Young (EY) and Deloitte have been heavily involved in the healthcare restructuring since the beginning. We have paid them millions of Alberta tax payer dollars to produce nothing but costly disasters for our healthcare system.
EY is responsible for the recommendation to privatize lab services with Dynalife, which cost our province over $100 million dollars before Dynalife went out of business
EY is also currently heavily involved in the EMS modernization to the extent that they are actually over seeing the changes as opposed to just making recommendations.
EMS managers are often unable to answer questions about the plans for modernization because they aren't involved in it.
Deloitte was responsible for consulting on the recent EMS rebranding.
Several paramedics have already come forward saying that they felt the Deloitte focus groups did not listen to their input on branding and it seemed like the Deloitte consultants already had their minds made up before the focus groups were conducted.
Deloitte is also currently under investigation for using AI to create false evidence to support their recommendations to clients. They clearly continued to use AI for their promotional videos of the Alberta EMS rebranding, which led to embarrassing spelling errors and inaccuracies. One has to wonder if Deloitte relied on AI for other aspects of the EMS rebranding.
These are just a few examples. Money is being spent on everything except actually supporting paramedics and improving healthcare capacity.
Les, the real world doesn't care about how cool you look on LinkedIn announcing the release of a new branding with a mouthful of corporate consultant buzz words.
Paramedics never wanted a new logo and a new brand.
Things paramedics actually want:
- Investment in expanding frontline resources to meet increasing call volumes
- Having real rest periods and going home on time
- A healthcare system that doesn't normalize leaving sick patients in hospital hallways and waiting rooms
- Abandoning the expensive consultants and engaging with real paramedics to create meaningful change
It's time to prioritize our patients, healthcare workers, and healthcare system over increasing the profits of expensive consulting firms.
