Paramedic shortage creating crisis: PC MLA

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Several Westman communities are facing a health-care crisis because of a shortage of paramedics, says Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Roblin.

In an interview with the Sun, Cook said she had heard similar accounts from first responders themselves.

“When I hear ‘crisis levels’ used by front-line health-care providers, as I have now, that’s very concerning to me and I think that demands immediate attention from the government,” said Cook, who is also the opposition party’s health critic.

Information provided to the Sun from the PCs highlighted a shortage of paramedics in four Westman communities in the Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) region.

Shoal Lake’s EMS station has one paramedic for 13 intended positions. In Virden, there are nine out of 17 positions filled; Russell has five paramedics out of 13, and Erickson has two of four positions filled.

“The numbers do speak for themselves,” said Cook. “I think for residents of those communities, it’s a very legitimate fear that there may not be an ambulance there if they need it.”

Shoal Lake is located in the Rural Municipality (RM) of Yellowhead, about 107 kilometres northwest of Brandon. The community’s mayor, Merv Starzyk, said the “lone paramedic attended a council meeting,” let them know he would be the only one to respond to emergency calls.

“It’s serious, not good, not good at all,” Starzyk said. “It is a life-and-death situation.”

The paramedic rents a house 24 kilometres away because there are no long-term rental properties in Shoal Lake, which offers only temporary housing.

“Our paramedic is a very dedicated individual, but he’s going to get burned out and there’s not much that we can do, our hands are tied,” said Starzyk.

Cook said she blamed the NDP for not following through on campaign promises that Premier Wab Kinew made before his party was elected in 2023.

“They promised nothing less than to fix health care. Those are their words.”

“Last year, they (the provincial NDP) promised to hire 90 paramedics in 2024 and then in September, they released an update showing that they had only hired seven out of the promised 90,” she said.

“They’ve fallen well short of what they’ve promised. We’ve heard nothing from the government about this issue, or their plan to get more paramedics practising in rural Manitoba, and I think that’s very concerning,” said Cook.

The paramedic shortages are a direct result of PC cuts and negligence, said Health, Seniors and Long-term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara, adding, “if you live in Westman, you’ll get the emergency care you need.”

“We’ve already successfully recruited 870 net-new health-care workers to Manitoba. Recruitment efforts have included a $16-million investment to staff a third ambulance stationed in Brandon,” Asagwara said.

“We also provided the funding for 16 additional training seats at RRC Polytech for advanced care paramedics, who will work in rural and northern communities,” they said in a statement emailed to the Sun.

The current staffing challenges in Westman did not occur overnight, nor will they be solved overnight, a spokesperson for Shared Health said, adding it will “continue to work with the Manitoba government and the Health Care Retention and Recruitment Office to grow paramedic staffing in the province.”

Included in the $16-million investment will be funding to hire clinical service leaders in various communities, including Western Manitoba, “developing community paramedicine units across the province, which will support patients with chronic health and social issues,” the spokesperson told the Sun in an email.

It is a huge challenge to get paramedics to work in rural Manitoba, said Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals (MAHCP).

Linklater represents more than 7,000 allied health staff across Manitoba, including rural paramedics, lab and X-ray technicians, as well as emergency call dispatchers.

“Manitoba needs to turn out 100 new grads per year for the next five years to have that sustainable emergency response services system in the province. That’s being able to staff the city of Winnipeg, as well as staff rural Manitoba,” Linklater said.

Under the previous PC government, the province’s paramedics went without a contract for five years and have been without a contract for eight months with the NDP, he said.

Wage inequality is an issue with paramedics who make less working in smaller communities than they do in the city of Winnipeg. Lack of accommodations is also a problem, Linklater pointed out, and so is workload.

“Rural paramedics have a higher level of demand put on them,” he said. “They’re able to give more drugs, they have longer transports with patients without that physician support and without being able to access emergency room within 15 minutes, like can happen in the city.”

“And many times, they can be by themselves in an ambulance with a patient in a serious condition for over an hour. So, the conditions that rural paramedics work in, are high demand,” he said.

The numbers provided to the PCs relating to the shortages in the four Westman communities are accurate, he said, adding there are currently between 150 and 200 paramedic vacancies across the province.

Solutions, Linklater said, should include continuous hiring, and reinstating the rotating rural paramedic training program that was previously offered in Brandon and other small cities like Portage la Prairie and Winkler.

Housing needs to be addressed, and incentives need to be offered to paramedics to encourage them to take postings in rural health-care regions, said Greg Nesbitt, the PC MLA for Riding Mountain.

“The paramedic situation is dire in western Manitoba — and if truth be known, in many, many rural locations across Manitoba,” said Nesbitt.

“So, it remains the government of the day’s responsibility to take care of health care, and that’s why we’re sounding the alarm, because the ball’s in their court now.

“They can play the blame game, but the fact remains that this government’s been in power for 15 months now, and they ran in the election campaign on fixing health care, not making it worse,” he said.

“They can blame us, but it’s their turn to fix it.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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