New training, equipment needed to keep paramedics safe: union

The union that represents Thunder Bay, Ont., paramedics is calling on Superior North EMS (SNEMS) to provide new training and equipment to keep its members safe.

"We've encountered many, many situations where the paramedics have been involved in some form of verbal threat, intimidation," said Rob Moquin, a Thunder Bay paramedic, and unit chair of Unifor Local 229, which represents Thunder Bay paramedics.

"And physical violence, as well," he said. "Paramedics have been hit, spit at."

Knife pulled on paramedic crew

Moquin cites an incident that occurred Friday, Feb. 23, as an example. A paramedic crew was called to a reported drug overdose at a residence, but Moquin said a domestic dispute was also reported at the scene.

"The crew was, of course, told to proceed with caution," Moquin said. However, on arrival, a male came out of the house and told paramedics that his wife was overdosing, and asked for their help.

Inside, things escalated, and the man pulled a knife on the responding paramedics, who were able to get out of the house without injury and contact police.

When police arrived, the paramedics were able to treat the overdosing woman, Moquin said.

He said it was the second time Thunder Bay paramedics had been threatened with a knife recently. About a year ago, a man pulled a knife from his pocket at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and threatened the paramedic crew that was attending to him, Moquin said.

"We're being met with forms of violence of many kinds on the street daily," he said. "I, myself, have been involved in a physical altercation, where someone came at myself and my partner."

"We actually had to physically intervene until the police arrived and dealt with the individual appropriately."

New training, equipment needed

The issue stretches beyond paramedic safety, too, Moquin said, as threats or violence can delay paramedics as they're trying to treat someone in need of help.

Moquin said paramedics receive no special training to deal with situations like these. However, the union is working to change that.

"We are right now speaking with [SNEMS], we're trying to get some sort of a situational-awareness style training," he said. "We don't want to call it self-defense, because it's not about defending ourselves. It's about recognizing the situation you're in and being able to respond appropriately."

"Often, we're in some very dangerous situations," Moquin said. "These situations escalate so quickly that sometimes we're in a very volatile situation, and we don't realize until we're in the middle of it."

They're also talking to SNEMS about providing stab-proof vests for paramedics to wear while on the job, a step that has been taken in other provinces.

Moquin said no commitments have yet been made by Superior North EMS on either the training or the vests.