Has the Blogger/Author Died?

That's a question that's appeared in the subject line of many emails sent my way lately. So I'm here to say...I'M BACK!

I apologize for the lack of content in my blog over the past four months. It really doesn't seem like four months has passed since the provincial election was called and I last posted on this site, and as I think back over the course of that time I really can't justify, even to myself, why I haven't been able to find time to write. Having said that though, I have to admit that my frustration level has been over the top on more than a few occasions these past few months, and I found it difficult to communicate anything constructive. In fact, quite honestly I began to question whether or not "it was worth it" anymore.

Midway through the provincial election campaign, PAM released a White Paper on EMS in Manitoba. This document, entitled Emergency Medical Services - Manitoba's Quiet Crisis, makes a number of recommendations designed to improve ambulance and paramedic services throughout the province. There's nothing earth-shattering in the paper...in fact it's simply a more formal collection of the very recommendations we've been making to Government for the past five years. If you haven't already read PAM's White Paper you can download it from our web site by clicking here.

Reaction to the White Paper released by PAM has been quite positive. Some of the recommendations made in our paper formed the basis for the PC campaign during the provincial election...paramedic self-regulation and an expanded role for paramedics in our health care system. Many are supported by arguments made in a White Paper released earlier in the year by the EMS Chiefs of Canada. In off-record discussions, many of our Regional EMS Managers support most if not all of the concepts included within our recommendations. Yet little or no gain has been made in many of the areas addressed within that document, and that forms the basis of my recent frustrations.

The only funding increases seen by Manitoba's EMS system over the past few years have been in reaction to crisis. The long anticipated announcement that Red River College would begin offering a one year certificate program in paramedicine still hasn't been made, and I suggest may in fact be in serious jeopardy. Despite assurances that PAM would have opportunity to participate in the Health Professions Regulatory Reform Initiative (HPRRI), little or no information has been forthcoming in this area. Service delivery and the level of patient care provided by paramedics across the province is still very inconsistent. And to add insult to injury, it has been suggested that PAM did little more than summarize work done by the long awaited (and still unreleased) EMS Framework Project and call it our own.

Hence frustration has overwhelmed me at times lately. But after careful thought and consideration, I've come to this conclusion. Political interference is a very real problem when it comes to reforming EMS in Manitoba. Respectfully I suggest that those within Emergency Services on Ellice Ave get it, the Department of Health gets it, senior bureaucrats and administrators within Health get it...I think even the Minister of Health and at least a handful of other Cabinet Ministers "get it". Unfortunately the politicians at the top don't get it, and continue to stonewall much of the work done by those others I mentioned to make much needed improvement a reality. Now that I better understand the problem...I'm not nearly so frustrated:)