Alarms raised over Winnipeg ambulance availability

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This article was published 20/04/2022 (1372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon said she’s focused on finding a solution, not “staring at the problem,” when asked about 28 hours in January when no paramedic units were available in Winnipeg.

Records obtained from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (which provides EMS services on behalf of Shared Health) show zero ambulance units were available for 103,624 seconds in January. In other words, no ambulances were available for dispatch for more than 28 hours — an average of 55.71 non-consecutive minutes per day, a city spokesperson confirmed.

The monthly records from January 2020 to February 2022, when no ambulances were available for a total of 16 hours, were obtained by the NDP through a freedom of information request.

In question period Wednesday, NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara asked the health minister what government is doing to address the gaps.

“Our government is committed to ensuring that EMS services are available to Manitobans across the province when they’re needed,” Gordon responded.

The Progressive Conservative government is hiring 35 more paramedics provincewide, has opened new ambulance garages (including one in Portage la Prairie) and there’s “more are to come,” Gordon said. “We will be there for Manitobans in their time of need.”

Asagwara was not assured.

“What I’m trying to make clear is they are not there for Manitobans in their time of need,” the registered psychiatric nurse said in the house. “In January of this year, service in Winnipeg was degraded 66 per cent of the time.”

The situation was four times as bad as December 2019, when no ambulances were available for seven hours total and paramedics had raised the alarm saying they’d never seen such lapses in availability, said Asagwara.

In January, the WFPS was dealing with the impact of the Omicron variant wave, which contributed to increased call volumes at the same time it increased staff absences due to COVID-19 isolation requirements, a City of Winnipeg spokesperson said Wednesday.

“Transfer-of-care time was also up slightly in comparison to the same time the previous year, delaying the return of ambulance units to dispatch status,” the spokesperson said.

“It’s a massive gap in any ambulances being available,” Asagwara said.

“It certainly lines up with what we’re hearing and seeing from folks in the community, who are reporting instances of falling down and breaking a leg and calling for an ambulance and an ambulance not showing up,” the health critic said outside the chamber.

“As a result, we see paramedics leaving the profession because they can’t deal with the burnout — and knowing that there are Manitobans calling for help and there is no ambulance available for them.”

In the house, Gordon said the province is responding to Manitobans’ concerns. “It was our government that reduced the ambulance fees — not their (NDP) government. We listened to Manitobans who were facing large fees.”

The PC government (elected in 2016) cut ambulance fees in half to $250 from $500. “We responded by making it more affordable,” Gordon said.

“What good is not having to pay a fee when there are no ambulances to get to people when they need help?” Asagwara shot back. “It was a crisis in 2019 that is four times worse right now. Why does she think it’s acceptable that no EMS is available for 28 hours in one month?”

Outside the chamber, Gordon said she planned to review the records concerning ambulances not being available and is “committed to improving care and the timeliness of care.”

The minister said she would bring the information to Shared Health, amid negotiations over ambulance fees.

“I want to sit at the table of solutions and talk about what the issues are and be very solutions-focused, in terms of ensuring Manitobans hear a plan to make things better,” the health minister told reporters.

Meantime, the union representing paramedics called the situation “unacceptable and dangerous.”

“Ambulance utilization rates continue to rise in Winnipeg, but investments into the service have not,” said Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union president Kyle Ross.

“We’ve been warning the City of Winnipeg and leadership with the WFPS for years that they need to properly resource the paramedic side of the WFPS,” Ross said in an email. “Lives literally depend on it.”

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said he was not surprised to hear the extended outage periods for ambulances in Winnipeg, describing it as a “predictable disaster” of the Tory government’s making.

“If you have (emergency rooms) that are overwhelmed, whether it’s by COVID cases or anything else, those ambulances are often stuck and they’re stuck until a patient is discharged or a patient makes it through the ER,” Lamont said.

“The entire system has been paralyzed by these disastrous reforms that the PCs have done.”

— with files from Danielle DaSilva

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca