Staff Shortage Spells Ambulance Outages

In the month of August, Springfield Ambulance (Oakbank) was out of service for almost 200 hours due to a lack of staff. A service that still relies heavily on staff to take on-call hours during nights and weekends, Springfield is finding it more and more difficult to ensure it's ambulance is available 24/7. They are not alone in that situation...ambulances across the province are taken out of service daily because of staffing problems...and that includes ambulances with paid staff around the clock.

Before the September long weekend, CBC radio and television news contacted the Paramedic Association of Manitoba about concerns related to ambulance staffing in the Springfield area. When asked about the prevalence of the problem, I suggested that we had heard reports similar to that in question from many services across the province. Since doing the CBC interview, we have confirmed ambulance outages occurred due to staff shortages in at least 14 different services for various periods of time over the Labor Day Weekend in Manitoba.

Staffing models vary dramatically from region to region. Some regions have opted to try and staff units on a full-time basis 24/7. Others rely on staff to take some on-call hours outside of their regular working hours to maintain service. Some will pay overtime to staff cars...others won't. Some regions have restricted their hiring to a minimum Technician-Paramedic level, some will hire anyone with an EMS Provider License. Undoubtedly the inconsistent staffing models from region to region have some bearing on whether or not units are taken out of service from time to time.

But I think the real problem runs much deeper than whether or not a region will pay to staff a unit in-house or rely on paramedics to be available on-call. I'm sure many regions have been reluctant to even consider changes to staffing models until government provides more clear direction regarding the future of EMS in Manitoba. Many EMS stakeholders, including the Paramedic Association of Manitoba, worked for more than 2 1/2 years to develop an EMS Framework document for consideration by senior government...that work has yet to be formally approved. Another committee, which also included representation by PAM, spent countless hours considering educational criteria for EMS programs looking to meet Manitoba Health's licensing requirements. Outside of the rumor mill, no final decisions have been made in this area that we are aware of. And government support for a paramedic education program that was expected to begin at Red River College almost one year ago has yet to be confirmed...and may well be in jeopardy.

My fear is that the staffing crunch we're beginning to see will only get worse if government continues to drag their heals on these very important issues. We are almost two years behind in educating paramedics that would normally staff many of our rural services. High school graduates looking toward EMS as a career are oftentimes leaving the province to pursue education in other jurisdictions...regions of the country that offer certificate or diploma programs in paramedicine and more definite career opportunities once they graduate. Our politicians need to make some very difficult and important decisions in the immediate future that allow us to be proactive and work toward improved system delivery...if not, the reactive decisions they will be forced to make will hurt Manitobans a whole lot more.

CBC TV NEWS - Aug 30, 2007