In a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon, President of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), Mike Parker said that it’s the human resources problem that is not being addressed by the provincial government when it comes to the crisis in Emergency Medical Services.
The press conference was a response to the announcement by Premier Kenney that there would be a significant increase in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) funding.
“Ambulances don't take people to the hospital. It's paramedics, it's communications officers who respond to those calls for 911. It’s people that take care of the citizens of this province,” Parker said.
While he did underscore that he was pleased with the province’s acknowledgement of the problem, he said that the province is still unwilling to understand the root of the problem.
“What we need is more paramedics on the frontlines, not ambulances. There were 3200 instances where ambulances sat empty in the City of Calgary because there were just not enough paramedic crews to fill them,” Parker said. “Adding 21 ambulances over a two-year period won't solve these problems if they're not going to get enough paramedics to fill these shifts.”
Since Premier Kenney’s announcement on Thursday that Airdrie would be receiving another ambulance to supplement its fleet, there has already been a myriad of questions with regards to staffing. Health Minister Jason Copping responded to these concerns during his visit to Airdrie on Friday morning. Copping was in Airdrie to tour Airdrie’s Urgent Care Facility.
According to Minister Copping, he does not have any trepidation when it comes to staffing, citing the fact that Alberta Health Services is continuously recruiting personnel on a rolling basis.
However, the President of HSAA is vehemently dubious of the province’s stance, citing that Alberta Health Services is not treating its employees with the respect they deserve.
“It’s truly the heart of this EMS crisis; the policies of the employer of AHS have treated workers as expendable rather than a highly valued professional that they truly are and we are seeing the results of this with a high rate of burnout,” he said. “What we are hearing from our members directly on the road is that lost time injury rates due to psychological injury is unconscionably high and we are seeing people stay in the profession for an extremely short period of time.”
Parker underlined that the province should focus on retaining paramedics before committing to more ambulances.
“There are three areas that are driving paramedic burnout that need to be addressed. The first is the nonstop calls and excessive forced overtime that they face every single day. We also have a lack of security on psychological injuries for our members,” Parker said. “The pace of work with no breaks and the mental toll that it's causing is an unreasonable burden to all members.”
The $64-million, or 12.2 per cent, increase that the province announced, allocated $14 million for the “hours of work” initiative, to address crew fatigue. This money is meant to the Alberta Health Services’ EMS Hours of Work project, which involves adjusting working hours, shifts and schedules to lessen fatigue among paramedics in 14 rural communities, though Airdrie is not among those communities.
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