Wait times up for rural ambulance calls: Union

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This article was published 11/02/2022 (1512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ambulance wait times in rural Westman rose by more than a quarter in late 2021 compared to before the pandemic — the biggest increase in the province, according to the union representing paramedics.

The maximum wait time for emergency ambulance calls in Westman was up approximately 27.5 per cent in December 2021 compared to late 2018, according to numbers provided by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals.

In December 2021, an ambulance reached the caller in an emergency within 13.73 minutes half the time in rural Prairie Mountain Health, according to the union. That’s an increase of approximately three minutes from 10.77 minutes between October and December 2018.

During non-emergencies in late 2021, an ambulance arrived within 13.87 minutes 50 per cent of the time, but could be up to nearly 45 minutes.

“That’s a real concern,” said union president Bob Moroz.

The wait times could be much longer, according to the MAHCP’s numbers. In an emergency, ambulances in PMH arrived within approximately 45 minutes 90 per cent of the time in December 2021, an increase from 35.45 minutes in late 2018.

The jump in wait times is because ambulances have been out of service due to staffing shortages, Moroz said. In October 2021 there were 17,000 out-of-service hours due to staff shortages, according to the data from the union, which grew to 19,000 hours in December 2021.

“It is not mechanical issues, it is not ambulance issues, it is we just simply don’t have the paramedics to be able to do that,” he said.

While Moroz said Shared Health has not provided staffing numbers, he said the province does not have enough paramedics to cover all that is needed.

“Government refuses to even address publicly that there is a staffing crisis and it’s growing, and it’s growing fast. Manitobans are going to feel the brunt of that,” he said.

“That team of paramedics wants to get to you as soon as they possibly can when you need them. The system is failing both the paramedics and the people who are waiting for their services.”

For emergency calls, the wait time in Interlake-Eastern regional health authority was up 26.3 percent in the 50th percentile, while in the Northern Health region it was up 16.2 per cent and in Southern Health was up 6.9 per cent, according to the MAHCP.

The pandemic has “exacerbated existing staff vacancies,” reads a statement from a spokesperson for Shared Health.

“Just as COVID-19 transmission has resulted in increased sick calls in other areas of health care and other areas of the economy, we have seen increased instances of staff either sick with the virus or isolating due to symptoms or exposure who have been unable to work,” the statement reads.

“During the winter months and particularly during the fourth wave [of the pandemic], both a number of severe winter weather events and the omicron variant have placed additional challenges on our workforce.”

In response to the staffing challenges, Shared Health has worked with the College of Paramedics on provisional licences for new graduates, introduced a flexible dispatch model to allow ambulances to be “strategically” positioned and established a team to recruit EMS personnel, according to the spokesperson.

The department has also worked to increase educational capacity for the profession and strengthened partnerships with regulatory and schools.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew said provincial government cuts to health care have left paramedics “overworked and understaffed.”

“Families are now facing dangerously long wait times and paramedics are burning out. The situation has been at a crisis point for months, but still the Health Minister has done nothing,” Kinew said in a statement, also calling for more competitive wages for EMS.

Brandon City Council recently voted to allocate $293,287 to Brandon Fire and Emergency Services to hire four new firefighter/paramedics on an interim basis.

The new positions are meant to reduce strain on the city’s EMS system, part of which is caused by a 10 per cent increase in calls over the course of 2021, including with patient transfers.

Moroz is calling on the provincial government to make a plan to improve ambulance wait times and shore up paramedic resources in rural Manitoba.

“Paramedics need a plan right now, they need to know there’s a plan. It takes years to fix this, but we need to start before it continues to get worse,” he said.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_