Paramedic shortage due to staff illnesses leaves Winnipeg 3 ambulances short over weekend

Dozens of sick calls among critical services staff left Winnipeg three ambulances short of its normal number on Saturday, says the chief of the city's fire-paramedic service.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Chief Christian Schmidt said three 911 call centre operators, seven paramedics and 16 firefighters were out with illnesses on Saturday night.

Call centre staff and firefighters managed to fill some of the gaps by working overtime, but Schmidt said the absence of paramedics forced his service to park unstaffed ambulances for the night shift.

"Unfortunately we were unable to fill all the paramedic vacancies, and that resulted in us being down three ambulances," he said. "This isn't an ideal situation to be in.... Ideally we would like to staff all of the vehicles all of the time."

The major incident response vehicle, which is stationed in Winnipeg's core, also couldn't be staffed, he said.

Schmidt said typically the paramedic service can make do by asking some staff to pull overtime, as they did last weekend with firefighters and call centre operators, but "COVID has changed things."

"We've operated with those [staffing] ratios for a very long time and they served us well, but it's time to re-evaluate these things in large part due to COVID," said Schmidt. "We can no longer have, obviously, people in the workplace that are ill."

In light of a rise in sick times due to COVID in recent years, he says it's time for the fire-paramedic service to consider upping its staffing ratios.

Losing three ambulances for an evening makes work more challenging for those on staff, particularly 911 operators who do call screening and prioritize those most in need, said Schmidt.

The head of the union that represents Winnipeg paramedics echoed that call for more bodies on the front lines and the domino effect of how absences make the job more stressful for 911 operators.

Ryan Woiden, president of Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union Local 911, said operators generally assign ambulances to calls that are nearest to them.

When there are fewer on the road due to staffing issues, ambulances might get sent further distances to calls, which puts paramedics at risk, said Woiden. He said an ambulance was hit by another vehicle over the weekend while "responding from quite some distance," and there were minor injuries.

"After we get in an accident then you've got less paramedics able to show up the next day, thus turning into a vicious cycle of problems," said Woiden, who is also a paramedic and worked the Saturday day shift.

"When you see this city from the inside like we do, we're on life support here and it's very scary at times," Woiden said.

Schmidt said only one inter-hospital patient transfer was delayed as a result of the Saturday staff shortages. That patient had to wait until the following day to be moved. 

"That's the only patient where we noted a significant delay in response," he said. "The good news there is the patient was low acuity."

WFPS platoon chiefs are closely watching staff levels heading into this weekend, said Schmidt, in hopes of being ready to prevent a similar shortage.

He also said a class of firefighters and paramedics is graduating in the coming weeks, which will increase staffing numbers.

Woiden said there are other good ideas being floated by people on the front lines.

"We're just trying to get someone to listen," he said.

"We really don't care anymore who is pointing fingers as to whose problem it is. We're in a crisis here....  We really want people here in this city, the leaders here in this city and the leaders on Broadway, to get together and figure this out."