Alberta Health Services to release report on ambulance response for dog attack victim

Photo: The Canadian Press

A memorial, shown on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, in the back alley of a Capitol Hill home in Calgary where an 86-year-old woman was attacked by dogs.

An independent review into why it took an ambulance 30 minutes to get to an 86-year-old Calgary woman who had been attacked by three dogs is to be released today.

Police and paramedics responded in June 2022 to the Capitol Hill neighbourhood and found the injured woman, Betty Ann Williams.

She was taken to hospital by ambulance and later died.

Alberta Health Services, which runs emergency medical services, says in a statement that the independent review by the Health Quality Council of Alberta has made multiple recommendations to AHS, the city and police.

The health authority said at the time that the initial 911 call was sent to police based on information provided from the scene.

A neighbour who called 911, however, told media she asked for an ambulance and did her best to tell the dispatcher what was going on.

Health officials said EMS initially triaged the "dog bite'" as non-life-threatening based on information received from the city's 911 call centre. Police then notified EMS when they arrived on the scene that the patient's injuries were serious.

The City of Calgary was also conducting its own investigation into the call and said at the time it would fully support the independent review.

The Health Quality Council review, which was initially expected to take about four months, was asked to look into the calls made to emergency dispatch, ambulance response time and availability of ambulances at the time.