Saskatoon’s paramedics have said they experienced another record year in emergency responses in 2023 by more than 1,1717 calls.
An email release from Medavie Health Services West said paramedics responded to 42,125 emergency calls in total in 2023 — 10,000 more calls than in 2019.
The call phone rings, on average, 115 times a day.
“This year has proven to be another challenging year for our paramedics as our call volumes have consistently increased each year over the past five years,” said Troy Davies, director of public affairs at Medavie.
He said he would have anticipated an even larger number of responses had the community paramedicine program not been in place. The program has paramedics treat patients in the community instead of transporting them to hospitals.
The community paramedics also saw a rise in responses from 2,508 in 2022 to 3,623 in 2023.
“The rapid growth of our city, along with an increase in mental health and addictions calls has contributed to this steady increase in call volumes each year,” Davies said.
Last week, the province announced that two additional, fully staffed ambulances were going to be added to the city, along with an additional community paramedic who will work 12-hour days, seven days a week.
The province is spending $2.6 million on the commitment.
Davies said the biggest challenge for paramedics today is for them to not take their work home with them.
“They are going to serious trauma calls, or they are dealing with kids and they’re not robots – they are going home to their kids, coaching hockey in their off time, so we’ve definitely seen mental health take its toll on a lot of our staff.”
Davies said he expects the new year to be just as busy and that Medavie will be trying to implement the government’s new resources as soon as possible.