MONTREAL - A staffing shortage at Montreal's ambulance service is being blamed for financial woes and longer response times, while also exacting a heavy toll on paramedics.
Though the number of emergency calls in the Montreal area is increasing, the city's ambulance service - Urgences-Sante - has been unable to dispatch more paramedics due to a lack of personnel. Union leaders are pointing to long hours of physically demanding labour for high rates of medically related absenteeism.
"The absences are such that they don't allow for us to fill the minimum slots to assure an adequate response time," union president Rejean Leclerc said Wednesday. "So Urgences-Sante has to resort to overtime on a daily basis."
Last year, it took Urgences-Sante an average of nine minutes and 27 seconds to respond to high priority calls. It targets a response time of nine minutes for matters of life and death.
Quebec's health minister says Urgences-Sante, which serves both Montreal and Laval, needs to organize itself better in order to reduce its response time.
"What I've noted over the past years is that there has been a considerable increase in financial resources, and we could have expected a subsequent improvement in services, which still isn't the case," Philippe Couillard told reporters in Quebec City.
Couillard laid the blame partly on how the ambulance service is run.
"Urgences-Sante certainly has organizational problems which we have drawn our attention to," he said. "We know Urgences-Sante itself is concerned about these problems."
In order to fill its staffing shortages, Urgences-Sante has had to rely heavily on asking its paramedics to work overtime.
A report in Wednesday's edition of Montreal La Presse said the ambulance service spent nearly $3.6 million on overtime pay in 2006-2007, $1.3 million more than what was originally budgeted.
A spokesperson for the ambulance service refused to comment on Couillard's criticism, but stressed there is nothing to panic about yet.
"We are short of staff but this is not a new issue," said Eric Berri.
"For sure there is a lot overtime that's been given out, but that's the way we need to do it to continue to ensure the service to the population."
Berri added that since the beginning of the summer, the service has been able to reduce its high priority response time by about a minute.
Still, the continued reliance on overtime is a concern for many workers.
"Driving an ambulance in an emergency takes all your faculties," said Leclerc. "If we're tired, our reflexes are weakened."
But unlike Couillard, Leclerc does not point the finger at Urgences-Sante management.
"The employer is doing the best it can with the resources he has, but it's lacking resources."
As for Couillard, he appeared skeptical at the sudden concern over response times.
"Yes we want the response times to improve but I think we can't ignore that we are in the context of negotiating a collective agreement."
Montreal's paramedics recently formed their own union and will resume negotiations this fall aimed at renewing their contract.
Paramedics currently make between $16 and $22.44 per hour.
