City 'begging' for new ambulances as contract with province remains in limbo
Resignation letter from paramedic points to burnout, stress from high call volumes
A shortage of ambulances in Winnipeg is so acute it has the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) at the point of begging for new ones to stem rising response times.
The call comes as a resignation letter and research from a former paramedic shows a high rate of stress and burnout among staff due to high call volumes.
WFPS chief John Lane told councillors on the Assiniboia Community Committee that the province's Shared Health department was notified in 2019 there was a need for 10 new ambulances.
That request would also necessitate hiring 120 paramedics to staff the units 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We have reported, asked, now we are begging, for new ambulances — or even just begging for an empty ambulance, even without staff. If we had that we could put paramedics in them on overtime," Lane told reporters Monday.
Calls for ambulance services have risen dramatically for the WFPS, and it has experienced longer times per call — partially due to the pandemic, which has necessitated higher levels of cleaning between responses.
Lane says he's seen as many as 17 calls queued up for service in a 12-hour shift this past fall, though none of them were serious emergencies that required immediate responses.
He did admit the WFPS is exceeding national response times guidelines (both for fire and paramedic ambulance services), due to population growth, socio-economic conditions in Winnipeg and increased traffic on the roads that slow down emergency vehicles.
The province of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg have been without a contract for ambulance services for more than four years, and the funding provided to the city by the province last year was $300,000 below what was invoiced.
A new ambulance has not been added to the 27 units operating in Winnipeg since 2011.
"Unethical and dangerous" workloads: former paramedic
Jennifer Setlack sent a resignation letter to the heads of the WFPS in July outlining her concerns about overwork, stress and burnout among paramedics.
Setlack left the service after 11 years on the job. With the support of the WFPS, she conducted a mental health study on paramedics and fire fighters between May 2018 and the summer of 2019.
"I'm sure it is no surprise to you that myself as well as my ambulance paramedic colleagues everyday are working 12+ hour shifts (with end of shift overtime) with very little if any down time, often without any breaks or late lunch breaks," Setlack wrote to the most senior staff at the WFPS, including Lane and Christian Schmidt, the deputy chief of operations and communications.
The former paramedic found 10.3 per cent of fire fighters and 19.4 per cent of paramedics obtained scores above the cut-off value for post traumatic stress disorder and as high as 19.8 per cent of fire fighters and up to 27.9 per cent of paramedics indicated moderate to extreme levels of depression, anxiety and stress.
Setlack presented her findings to the executive team nearly a year before she resigned, but left after she felt the information was being shelved.
"This is unethical and dangerous, especially since it's gone on for years now," Setlack wrote in her resignation letter about the heavy workload for paramedics.
Lane told reporters Monday that he and his executive team did meet with Setlack, and was reluctant to speak at length about the data she found, but not at all about her decision to leave the WFPS.
"It certainly was taken seriously," Lane said.
The fire paramedic chief admits the "typical measures for burnout are increasing, but I wouldn't say they are at a crisis point yet.
"We certainly do see people not signing up for overtime or not taking overtime when it's offered — that's unusual," Lane said.
Getting a deal with the province
City councillor Kevin Klein sat through Lane's presentation on Monday and called the impasse between the city and the province on getting a contract "a crisis of leadership," and said something had to be done to get a deal done.
Finance chair Scott Gillingham says he isn't sure what the province is doing, in not figuring out what kind of contract should be worked out between the city and the province for ambulance services, but he's sorry the paramedics are in the middle.
"I feel for them, because when these stories break they must feel like ping pong balls, kind of in the middle of a game," Gillingham said.
A spokesperson for Shared Health responded to requests for comment saying until a new deal is signed "patients who require assistance continue to receive excellent care that is in line with the existing service purchase agreement."
"Shared Health continues to work closely with government and our service partners to improve emergency medical care in Winnipeg and across Manitoba. As part of that work, we continue discussions with the City of Winnipeg on both a new funding agreement and on initiatives to improve service delivery and increase capacity, with the latter occurring on a near-daily basis," wrote the spokesperson.
