Province announces paramedic change

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This article was published 09/04/2025 (352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is ending a longstanding practice of excluding highly-trained paramedics from using their full range of expertise in rural and northern regions.

Shared Health has not hired paramedics who obtain the highest possible level of training in their profession — an advanced care paramedic or ACP designation — to work at that level since its inception.

A total of 14 ACPs have been tapped to work as “clinical service leaders” in seven communities located outside major urban centres, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced in a news release Wednesday.

The new hires have an expanded scope of practice, as well as a mandate to provide in-depth care on a scene upon arrival.

Their skills are akin to those who staff emergency rooms, and they will not be responsible for transporting patients via rapid-response vehicles.

They are being stationed in Lac du Bonnet, Portage la Prairie, Ashern, Neepawa, Dauphin, Swan River and Flin Flon.

Scott Noble, executive director of emergency medical services operations at Shared Health, said the additions will help the organization’s emergency response system “be more nimble and responsive at the same time.”