A territorial medical worker believes the government is putting lives of Yukoners at risk because of the amount of money it puts into ambulance services.

The employee, who spoke to the Star on the grounds of anonymity, outlined a list of problems with Yukon's emergency medical services.

The ambulances used by the territorial government are putting Yukoners at risk because of the age and disrepair of some of them.

The source has pointed out that there are five ambulances currently stationed in Whitehorse.

However, one of the five is kept just as a loaner to the communities and is not stocked with any medical equipment.

On top of that, a second ambulance cannot be used to transport patients because it has too low of a ceiling.

A third ambulance, a seven-year-old vehicle with 155,000 km on it, is set as the second ambulance, in use between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. each day, has had continual electrical problems, making it difficult to rely on.

On one trip to Braeburn to meet the ambulance from Carcross and transport a patient to Whitehorse, that vehicle died and lost all electrical power.

The Carcross ambulance wasn't going all the way to the capital so it would not be out of service in the community for too long.

Instead, the Carcross ambulance had to transport both the patient and the Whitehorse attendants back to the city because of the dead ambulance sitting on the side of the road.

Later, the government and the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health Safety Board both deemed the vehicle good to go ... before it died again.

The person said that vehicle has been in the repair shop 20 or 30 times.

Of the two remaining ambulances in Whitehorse, one is two years old with 23,000 km on it but the other is 10 years old with 144,000 km on it.

The person noted that one time an ambulance attendant climbed into one of the vehicles and couldn't get it started. Instead, it had to be jump-started before it could be taken on an emergency.

The source said the government has not followed up on its promise three years ago to buy three new ambulances each year, which would be not just in Whitehorse but also spread throughout the territory.

Across the territory there are 23 ambulances ranging in age from 19 years (the Eagle Plains ambulance with 23,000 km on it) to one year old in Haines Junction.

Of the current fleet, three are two years old. Those and the one-year-old are the only ones fewer than five years old.

Now the government is planning to buy two new ambulances, one for Ross River, which has a 15-year old vehicle, and one possibly for Whitehorse. But the person quickly points out these new ambulance already have problems and have not even arrived yet.

The first problem for the worker is where the government has chosen to buy the two ambulances from.

The government purchased the vehicles from Dynamic Specialty Vehicle Ltd. of Vancouver. According to the source, the price tag for each one is $114,000.

They noted that normally the government has bought vehicles from Ford and had them outfitted by an Alberta company. According to the person, if the vehicles were purchased this way, they would have each cost $85,000.

Besides saving money, the source indicated the ambulance workers have more faith in the Fords, instead of Chevrolets from Dynamic.

They said the ambulance with the electrical problems was purchased a decade ago from Dynamic.

Allegedly, the government did not discuss the vehicles with the emergency workers before ordering the pair.

They said that if there had been discussion with the emergency workers a second problem could be avoided.

The two ambulances which have been ordered are 7.3 metres (24 feet) long instead of 5.5 metres (18 feet), which is the length of the rest of the fleet.

The source said this will create a real problem when the ambulances arrive. They said the ambulance bay in Ross River is too small by .45 m (1.5 feet) and the new vehicle will not fit in there.

At Whitehorse, the new ambulances will fit into both the ambulance station's bay and the dock in Whitehorse General Hospital from where patients are taken inside.

However, they won't fit by much.

The source indicated there will be about .25 m (10 inches) clearance, which will make it difficult to move patients out of the ambulance or move around the vehicle.

There is no need for the bigger ambulances, according to the source.

They suggested the government will have to spend more money to increase the size of the bays because the appropriate consultation was not done.

There are other equipment programs the person mentioned.

Of the three portable packs used to gauge heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels, the person noted that one has been broken for a year.

The person added that if there are two medivacs going out at one time, there is one pack available but a second needs to be grabbed from an ambulance, leaving just one for any calls within the city.

The other way the government is putting Yukoners at risk, according to the person, is by not hiring and employing enough staff.

There are two ambulances in service each day, one 24 hours and one from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The person noted the second ambulance is always staffed with auxiliary, on-call attendants and has been for the past three years. They said auxiliaries are only supposed to be used when full-time attendants are sick or on vacation and not to be regularly scheduled.

Instead, the government is up to 12 permanent staff and 12 auxiliary, which the person indicated should not happen. They said there should be more permanent staff.

A safety problem arises when an extra ambulance is needed beyond what is staffed at that time.

If there is a motor vehicle accident, as a standard course, two ambulances are dispatched. If this comes after 11 p.m., a second crew has to be called at home, often awoken, and they have to race down to the ambulance station next to the hospital, climb into uniform, then get in the vehicle and head to the scene.

The person said this leads to an unnecessary delay and it's the ambulance attendants who have to explain to people why their loved ones were left in dire straits while they had to wait 30 minutes or longer for an ambulance to arrive.

The person said the vast majority of staff live outside the downtown and Riverdale areas.

They added the situation could compound things since the attendants are often half-awake, speeding down to the station. It could cause an accident in the future, the person suggested.

The limited amount of staff has also led to attendants having to do a lot of extra work, such as being called in or sent out on medivac trips after finishing a 12-hour shift. This does not leave the attendants in good shape and could lead to problems.

All of this means Yukoners are not getting the best care they could get, the person said. They believe the government must hire more full-time staff.

It's not clear what will happen with ambulance services since the government announced recently it is removing the service from its control and putting it under the hospital corporation.