P.E.I. ambulance company struggling to fill 9 vacancies for paramedics

The head of the company that runs ambulance services on Prince Edward Island says it has nine vacancies for paramedics at the moment, and is having a hard time filling them.

The news of the staff shortages comes days after the story of a West Prince man who died while waiting for an ambulance was told in the P.E.I. Legislature.

In an interview with Kerry Campbell of CBC News: Compass, Matthew Crossman acknowledged that the provincial government pays the company the same amount and doesn't impose penalties even if some Island EMS ambulances have to stay parked because there's nobody to staff them. 

A similar arrangement in New Brunswick caused that province's auditor general to issue a critical report in 2020, calling for changes to the contract with Medavie. 

Crossman said Island EMS has been calling in management staff to fill vacant shifts and has started offering existing staff double-time pay to work on their days off.

"[Island EMS staff] have been tremendous, working tirelessly day and night to provide services not only through the ground ambulance but other aspects of health care," Crossman, the Halifax-based vice-president of operations for Medavie, said in the interview on Monday. 

"We've been very fortunate in the previous few years where we've been fully staffed. For the most part, we may have had the odd vacancy. But when I look today, we have about nine vacancies in our system, which is a pretty large number for Prince Edward Island."

West Prince tragedy

Late last week Liberal MLA Hal Perry told the P.E.I. legislature the story of George Kinch, a Palmer Road man who died on Feb. 20 after having a heart attack on the job at an Alma potato warehouse.

Kinch's co-workers and volunteers from the Alberton Fire Department frantically tried to save his life while they waited for an Island EMS ambulance to arrive. 

There was no ambulance team in West Prince that day, however, and Kinch was pronounced dead after 55 minutes of resuscitation efforts. 

The ambulance still hadn't arrived on the scene. It took more than an hour to come from Summerside.

When situations like this happen, we do take it very seriously, and we do do an investigation to find ways of how we can mitigate that.— Matt Crossman, Medavie VP of operations

During the interview Monday, Crossman extended condolences to Kinch's family, but said he wouldn't be able to speak specifically about the incident.

"When situations like this happen, we do take it very seriously, and we do do an investigation to find ways of how we can mitigate that," he said. 

"We want to really take notice and make sure that we make the changes to make sure that the care is delivered in the appropriate time as people need it."

In a statement on Friday, Medavie responded this way to questions about the Feb. 20 response time of more than an hour: "There are many factors that can impact Island EMS response times, including a high volume of call demand, multiple calls in an area, and delays in offloading patients."

Political pressure for change

Even before Kinch's story became known, provincial opposition MLAs and the paramedics' union were calling for action to bolster the ambulance service on P.E.I.

"This type of tragic event is one that paramedics have been warning us could happen," Green health critic Michele Beaton wrote in a news release Monday. 

"Paramedics have spoken loud and clear that they are worried about the safety of Islanders. They know that they are understaffed. They know Islanders are underserved. They have everything to lose by speaking out but they need to see changes."

Michelle Neill, who's running to lead the Island New Democrats, issued a news release about the Kinch case, saying: "The King government must immediately commission a public inquiry on emergency medical services for rural Prince Edward Island to thoroughly address the glaring disparity of emergency health care access across our province."

Pay still lags

Jason Woodbury, the head of the paramedics' union, told CBC News on Monday that Island EMS contacted the union to see if they could offer double pay to try to cover empty shifts on Sunday, in order to avoid more ambulances sitting idle.

The union agreed, having been asking for this measure for some time.

CUPE Local 3324 members ratified a new collective agreement in November that included a 7.75-per-cent increase in pay over four years, with the terms retroactive to Dec. 31, 2018.

The last pay increase in the contract, which will kick in on July 1, will top up the starting salary for an Island paramedic to $23.83 (it's $23.65 at the moment.)  

"We will do everything we can to get those wages up," Premier Dennis King vowed that same day.  

'Our staff are tired'

Crossman said many factors are contributing to the higher number of unfilled jobs at Island EMS, but pay rates are certainly a big issue.

He said ambulance companies in Western Canada are offering paramedics "sometimes double" the pay they can earn on P.E.I., making recruitment difficult. 

The working conditions are not easy either.

"As people are becoming more tired, we're starting to see more short-term illnesses," Crossman said, including some caused by exposure to COVID-19 as public health restrictions ease on the Island. 

"Our staff are tired and they do need their time off,"  he said.

As well, he said the system has gotten a lot busier with more calls.

Hoping to hire grads — and Australians

To deal with the shortage of staff, Crossman said Island EMS is hoping to attract some or all of the 18 young paramedics due to graduate from Holland College in April and May of this year. 

The company has also been talking with its union about creating some full-time floater positions to cover shifts when people are sick or on vacation. 

And it's looking farther afield for workers. 

"Right now, Australia has a very comparable paramedic system and they have an abundance of paramedics who are ready to work and able to adapt," said Crossman. 

"Is that a solution for the future? Are we able to do a bridging program where we're able to bring in paramedics from other jurisdictions to get them trained to our standard and then be able to operate them and be able to have them successful in the system?"