Sick time, OT skyrocket for firefighters, paramedics

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This article was published 17/04/2023 (923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More ambulances, paramedics and firefighters are the answer to the staggering amount of overtime and sick days logged by Winnipeg first responders last year, their chief says.

“We are busy literally all the time now at the fire paramedic service,” said Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Chief Christian Schmidt.

New data show the toll exacted on the service by the pandemic, opioid crisis and increased mental health calls.

Schmidt noted the increases in over and sick time are tied to a degree to COVID-19 infections among staff and resulting time off.

Fire paramedic service employees took 13,800.7 sick days in 2022, an increase from 10,482.8 in 2021, data provided by the service show. Firefighters took the bulk of those days at 9,972.7, while paramedics logged 3,828 days in sick time.

That’s a far cry from the total 8,712 sick days paramedics and firefighters logged in 2018.

The city employs 1,400 first responders and other workers in support roles.

Emergency responders also worked significantly more overtime in 2022: 123,461 hours, compared to 110,386.5 hours in 2021. It’s often to fill vacancies due to sick leave.

“Those numbers are reflective of the state that we find ourselves in now,” said Schmidt.

“A lot of those numbers are reflective of what we came out of with COVID-19 and the impacts that it had on our personnel… But as well, the numbers are reflective of some of our resourcing issues.”

He said the service has the same number of ambulances now as it did a decade ago. Seventeen operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An additional 11 ambulances operate during peak hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“During that time, call volumes continued to increase, COVID-19 certainly was a factor in that… as well as overdoses and mental health crisis calls that our staff are called out to on a daily basis. All of this has contributed to higher service volumes,” said Schmidt.

Firefighters and paramedics are under physical and mental strain, he said.

In 2022, the city budgeted $221 million for the service.

Ryan Woiden, head of the union that represents paramedics, said many have left the profession or moved to other services such as police.

“We’re breaking, we’re broken, those numbers show that,” said the president of Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union Local 911.

Firefighter union president Tom Bilous said the numbers can’t be assessed one dimensionally, noting he thinks the pandemic exacerbated underlying societal issues. However, he said resources should be bolstered.

“We fight fires — and I’m not talking garbage bin fires, fires of significance where we have five-plus machines there for many hours — at an unprecedented level here in Canada. At the same time, our members are going to all kinds of medical calls, which often result in wait-times for an ambulance,” said Bilous, of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg.

“Our level of service, what we provide the citizens, has gone through the roof, and yet our staffing ratios have stayed at 1970s levels.”

Kristin Cuma, spokeswoman for WFPS, said there has been an increase in calls related to substance use and mental health.

Overall medical calls have jumped, while the number of fires in the city has increased over the past five years.

It means paramedics and firefighters respond to more calls per shift, with fewer resources. It also results in increased wait times.

Last year, firefighters and paramedics also filed fewer psychological claims to the Workers Compensation Board, after a big jump in 2021 — 171 versus 234 in 2021. However, the number of working hours lost to such claims increased.

In 2022, the department lost 11,464.5 working hours to the claims, compared to 7,838 in 2021.

The department, Cuma noted, has made strides in providing mental health resources to WFPS personnel.

Chief Schmidt said administrators are trying to address the strain on responders.

He noted an advanced care paramedic works out of the 911 call centre, doing secondary call screening and triage, accessing callers’ medical records to determine how to best help them.

The chief said in many cases that means connecting the patient to a different medical resource, rather than dispatching a fire truck staffed with fire paramedics or an ambulance.

Cuma noted WFPS provides emergency medical service on behalf of Shared Health, a provincial entity, on a cost-recovery basis. It’s currently negotiating a new service agreement, which she couldn’t comment on.

However, she said, the service and Shared Health are working to reduce the strain on the system, including by temporarily suspending some medical-facility transports, using community paramedics, and trying to reduce the number of redirected ambulances.

“Transfer-of-care procedures have also been established to minimize the time ambulances remain at a hospital, thereby freeing them up to be available for dispatch sooner,” Cuma said.

“Additionally, the City of Winnipeg and Shared Health are currently negotiating a long-term funding agreement to support EMS service levels.”

Woiden took aim at Shared Health for the lack of progress to negotiate a contract; the last one expired in early 2021.

A message on the union’s website said further talks are scheduled this spring to deal with monetary issues.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera