January 19, 2021

Winnipeg
-20° C, A few clouds

Full Forecast

Contact Us Subscribe Manage Subscription Chat with us
Log in Create Free Account Help Chat with us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • My Account
    • Manage my Subscription
    • Change Password

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
    • Log in
    • Create Free Account
    • Help

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
  • Coronavirus Coverage
  • Replica E-Edition
    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • The Herald
    • The Headliner
    • The Lance
    • The Metro
    • The Sou'Wester
    • The Times
  • Above the Fold
  • Front page
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Book Club
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
  • Canada
  • Local
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • World
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Archives
  • Canstar Community News
    • All Canstar Community News
    • The Headliner
    • The Herald
    • The Lance
    • The Metro
    • The Sou'wester
    • The Times
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Classifieds
  • Contests
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • Sponsored
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Flyers
  • Homes
    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Newsletters
  • Obituaries
  • Puzzles
  • Photostore
  • More

©2021 FP Newspaper Inc.

Close
  • Quick Links

    • Coronavirus Coverage
    • Above the Fold
    • Home
    • Local
    • Canada
    • World
    • Classifieds
    • Special Coverage
    • Flyers
    • Newsletters
    • Obituaries
    • Photostore
    • Archives
    • Contests
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Content
    • Privacy Policy

    Ways to support us

    • Pay it Forward program
    • Subscribe
    • Day Pass
    • Read Now Pay later
  • Replica E-Edition

    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • The Herald
    • The Headliner
    • The Lance
    • The Metro
    • The Sou'Wester
    • The Times

    Business

    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
  • Arts & Life

    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Sports

    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • Opinion

    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor

    Media

    • All Media
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos

    Homes

    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Canstar Community News

    • All Canstar Community News
    • The Headliner
    • The Herald
    • The Lance
    • The Metro
    • The Sou'wester
    • The Times
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Coupons

    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • About Us

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
Winnipeg Free Press
Articles Read
Your Balance +tax
Day Pass Till
Day Pass
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Report an Error
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
    • Staff Biographies
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • Log in
    • Create Account
    • Help
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
    • My Account
    • Manage My Subscription
    • Change Password
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
Log in Create Account Contact Us
Contact Us Manage Subscription
  • Sections
  • Local
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Diversions
    • Environment
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Health
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Soccer
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • E-Edition
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Automotive
    • Careers
    • Garage Sales
    • Merchandise
    • Pets
    • Real Estate
    • Rentals
    • Services
  • Sponsored
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print
    • Ripley's Aquariums
    • The Bay
    • Staples Canada
    • Altitude Sports
    • Nike
    • Tuango
    • Ebay Canada
    • Sport Chek
    • Roots
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe
Opinion Analysis

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Self-regulation not the answer for EMS

By: Alex Forrest
Posted: 12/2/2016 3:00 AM

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Print
  • Email

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 2/12/2016 (1509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The Manitoba government recently announced it is moving forward with a consultation initiative to bring forward paramedic self-regulation to the province. We are grateful to Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen for allowing us to be involved in these discussions. While we will endeavour to participate in the process, we feel it’s important to register our concerns, particularly as the current EMS system in Winnipeg serves as a model for other cities to emulate.

Manitoba is staffed with dual-trained and provincially licensed firefighter-paramedics in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson. It is important to emphasize that these firefighter-paramedics are involved in 80 per cent of the total number of emergency medical calls received in Manitoba’s three largest cities every year.

In Brandon and Thompson, the fire departments provide all emergency medical care for their citizens and large surrounding areas. In fact, those departments’ firefighter-paramedics provide every part of the emergency medical response system: from dispatch, to advanced medical care and ambulance transport to the hospital.

Here in Winnipeg, our 40 fire trucks are staffed, in part, by nearly 430 firefighter-paramedics. These crews responded to approximately 48,000 EMS calls last year, of which 12,000 were run by firefighter-paramedics only without an ambulance response. More than half of our licensed paramedics have at some point worked on either rural or city ambulances. These rank-and-file firefighters would be working on these trucks even if we did not attend one EMS call — they are not extra staff. We make use of current resources as a way to allow our system to be financially sustainable. We work closely with the well-trained ambulance-based paramedics, approximately half of whom are trained to the advanced care level, and who subsequently provide transport.

We are proud of our important paramedic role in Manitoba, and as representatives of more than 550 licensed firefighter-paramedics, we respectfully disagree with our ambulance brothers and sisters in the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union, and the Paramedic Association of Manitoba on the value and need for self-regulation at this time. Our concerns are based on the fact that we have a tremendously successful EMS system in Winnipeg, Thompson and Brandon, and self-regulation will create another level of bureaucracy. This is needless and costly. It seems the problems in rural EMS delivery are driving this process and self-regulation will not address those issues.

Stay informed

The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19.

Subscribe to COVID-19 Briefing
Sign Up

Our EMS system in Winnipeg is looked at by many cities in Canada as a model for patient care and financial sustainability. We continually poll as one of the most respected professions in Winnipeg, and our citizen satisfaction levels are always in the high 90s. We believe we have tremendous leadership and medical oversight in Winnipeg under emergency care specialist and WFPS medical director Dr. Rob Grierson, as well as Fire Paramedic Chief John Lane. Both are highly respected in their fields.

The 2013 Provincial EMS Report states: "The current medical director has been in this position for a decade and during that time has developed a very complete and effective medical oversight system."

We will work with the provincially appointed consultant Reg Toews to look at ways we can move forward with self-regulation while still protecting the systems in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson. We need to be perfectly clear that we have nothing but respect for ambulance paramedics in the province and, in fact, are a vocal supporter of our rural counterparts. We have been vocal on the belief that our rural ambulance paramedics have substandard wages and that benefits and their working conditions need to be brought up to the levels we enjoy in Winnipeg. We continuously hear this from the many firefighter-paramedics who have, and continue to work for rural EMS departments.

One thing that’s clear is that self-regulation for paramedics will not help our rural ambulance brothers and sisters in the areas of wages and working conditions. We believe the people responsible for the well-being of our rural paramedics should concentrate on those priorities at this time in light of recent announcements that the provincial government is entering a period of austerity and "wage pauses" for provincial workers.

At the end of the day, our position is clear: we want to continue delivering the best medical care model for the citizens of Manitoba. Self-regulation will not fix the major issues in rural Manitoba EMS delivery and will negatively affect our system by creating another level of needless bureaucracy.

Alex Forrest is the captain of the Winnipeg Fire Department, president of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg and the Canadian trustee of the International Association of Firefighters.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

  • Report Error
  • Submit a Tip
  • Refund

The Winnipeg Free Press invites you to share your opinion on this story in a letter to the editor. A selection of letters to the editor are published daily.

To submit a letter:
• fill out the form on this page, or
• email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or
• mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.

Letters must include the writer’s full name, address, and a daytime phone number. Letters are edited for length and clarity.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Top