Not enough workers on staff for entire shifts and some staff having to isolate at home due to a positive case of COVID-19.
It’s the reality for Superior North EMS members, who are trying to navigate the latest wave of the pandemic.
Unifor spokesperson Rob Moquin tells Acadia News there have been several times where an ambulance is unavailable to come to an emergency should they be called.
“We’ve been dealing with Code Black scenarios for several years,” “We have a service that is inundated by, I’ve mentioned before, social economical issues and certainly this pandemic has not helped when it comes to adding the pressures that Superior EMS has felt for calls for service.”
It’s a problem province-wide for emergency workers with Paramedic Services in Toronto forced to issue a Code Red last weekend with no more free ambulances available to respond to calls.
“Our staffing levels are probably quite comparable to other services (in Ontario),” Moquin explains. “We do have upwards of 120 paramedics working in Thunder Bay, and those numbers might be similar for individuals working in the district and the surrounding area. In Southern Ontario, they might have the same staffing levels but they don’t spread across the same area as we do when it comes to the city and district model that we have here.”
When it comes to the 2022 Operating and Capital Budget, Superior North EMS has an operating request of $12,291,400, which is an increase of 4.6 per cent increase from the 2021 approved cost of $11,750,700.
Moquin stresses that even though funding is split between the city and the province, EMS seems to be an afterthought.
“We’ve been for many, many years a profession that’s been third at the through, we’ve been third at the table and often the afterthought when it comes to funding, training, things like that,” Moquin added.
One separate point that Moquin made during the conversation is the increased number of paramedics making the province’s annual Sunshine List.
He noted that’s a result of the amount of overtime and increased demand that’s being put on members to cover for down staffing and times that they are in Code Black scenarios.
“The base wage for a paramedic is significantly under $100,000 and it takes (between) 15 and 16 twelve hour shifts for that person to reach that mark,” said Moquin. “Essentially it’s like a regular 9 to 5 worker working an extra month to hit that. The perception for the public might see that the wages and budgets are increasing for paramedics, when in fact it’s just our members working more to achieve that level of income. Our base wage is not the same as other emergency workers.”
