End of COVID funding threatens scope of community paramedic program

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This article was published 16/10/2023 (773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A community paramedic program the city has long credited with helping reduce demand for emergency room space and ambulance rides could see the scope of its work narrowed due to high demand.

However, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service hopes a value-for-money review can help build a case for expansion instead.

A city report notes the WFPS stopped receiving $750,000 of annual provincial funding for two community paramedic vehicles Sept. 30, since the temporary funds were dedicated to a COVID-19 response. Ten employees who staffed the two vehicles were redeployed.

The report says that reduction will leave only two vehicles on the road, which isn’t enough to adequately maintain all areas of program focus. The fire-paramedic department says demand for community paramedic services has risen so much the resources are now needed for non-pandemic work.

“Our overall volume, from a patient-care aspect and individuals accessing emergency services, has gone up,” Deputy Chief Ryan Sneath told the Free Press Monday.

For example, emergency crews referred about 1,000 patients they met on calls and deemed at risk of health decline to community paramedics for treatment pre-pandemic. That number skyrocketed to more than 9,000 per year during COVID-19 and is on track to hit about 7,000 this year, said Sneath.

The surge in demand was highlighted in a report that seeks city council approval to apply for a provincially funded third-party value-for-money review of city services, including the community paramedic program, the city’s response to vacant, derelict and/or “problem” properties and efforts to update residential waste collection.

Sneath said he hopes a community paramedic study would help make the case to get the two recently removed vehicles restored to the program and otherwise expand it. He stressed the program has pre-empted the need for some ambulance trips, a service that is also struggling to keep up with demand.

“The lack of available emergency resources creates an unacceptable risk for the community and for the individuals seeking emergent care,” the report warns.

The fire-paramedic service recorded a combined total of 155 total hours when no ambulances were available in Winnipeg throughout 2022, which includes stretches that often last minutes each, Sneath said.. There were 170 “zero ambulance hours” in 2021.

“Our target is to never have a spot where you phone 911 and we don’t have an ambulance to send you,” he said.

Sneath credits the four key tasks of the community paramedic program with reducing demands on ambulances and emergency departments.

In addition to patient referrals, the program’s employees proactively treat “frequent callers” who access emergency services more than 10 times in six months; complete lab and diagnostic followup work with patients in the community; and use secondary medical screening over the phone to determine which 911 callers with less-urgent medical concerns require an ambulance and which can seek alternate care.

Sneath said frequent callers who receive proactive service typically reduce their number of visits to the emergency department by about 62 per cent.

“These community paramedic programs, when they divert calls, that does result in cost avoidance. As we invest in different areas of this program, it does create efficiencies not only for us, but for the provincial government because they subsidize ambulance transports,” he said.

In an emailed statement, a Shared Health spokesperson said the provincial organization “recognizes the value of community paramedicine in Winnipeg and is working closely with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service on ensuring the design and funding for their community paramedicine programs continues to meet the needs of the populations it serves.”

The statement did not directly answer whether the province will restore the pandemic funding for the program or whether it shares the concern that reducing its scope could increase demand on ambulances and emergency rooms.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, a former community services committee chairwoman, said she would like to see more resources for the program.

“It’s a program that I’d want to see expand,” said Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry).

City council will cast the final vote on the provincial request for third-party review funding Oct. 26.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga