Emergency service workers are sounding the alarm over the shortage of ambulances and paramedics in Saskatoon.
The number of "Zero Alerts" -when no ambulances are available to respond to emergency calls because they’re all busy on other calls -are increasing in the city, said Scott Ingraham, president of the Saskatoon Ambulance Employee Association.
"If nothing is done to correct this problem, it’s just going to get worse," he said.
Saskatoon experiences an average of more than 40 minutes every day when there are no ambulances available, Ingraham said. That equals 11 full days in a year.
The ambulance that responded to a fatal accident at Attridge Drive and Central Avenue on March 6 took more than 13 minutes to arrive, said Ingraham, who was one of the paramedics on the call. On another call he was on, a person suffering a cardiac arrest waited more than nine minutes for paramedics to arrive. The standard for ambulance response time in urban areas is eight minutes, 59 seconds.
Ingraham said he was disappointed the provincial government hasn’t yet acted on the recommendations contained in the 2009 Saskatoon Emergency Medical Services Review -which contained 19 recommendations, including a standardized funding formula. Ambulance employees were hoping to see funding in last week’s provincial budget.
"The government commissioned that report. I would assume they would act on the recommendations of the report that they commissioned," Ingraham said.
The Saskatoon Health Region contracts MD Ambulance to provide ambulance service in Saskatoon. The city’s growing size is the main driver behind a steady increase in call volumes during the past five years, said MD Ambulance CEO and president Dave Dutchak.
"There’s major pressures right across the province," he said. "When you’ve got an increase in population and an aging population, your resources need to grow with those."
MD Ambulance is in negotiations both with its employees -who have been without a contract for more than 18 months -and with the health region, which is in the process of formulating its budget for 2011-12.
Dutchak said the company is also working with both the health region and the Ministry of Health to develop a proper funding formula for staffing ratios.
Ambulance services are funded by the government -through subsidies paid by the health regions -and user fees. The province just approved a $25 ambulance fee increase in December. In Saskatoon, fees increased to $325 from $300.
The Ministry of Health declined to comment, citing ongoing negotiations.
Comments