Winnipeg paramedic union calls for help amid 'unbelievable' violence levels, burnout on the job
'They’re getting things swung at them, kicked, punched,' paramedic union rep says
The union representing paramedics in Winnipeg is sounding the alarm about poor working conditions, following results from a recent member survey that showed high rates of violence and burnout on the job and inadequate staffing and support from management.
Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, said the survey highlighted problems that have "been left to fester for far too long."
"Our members at the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service show up when our city needs them, they show up when our citizens need them, and [they're] responding to calls that are getting increasingly more complex and more difficult," Ross said at a Wednesday morning news conference at Union Centre on Broadway, in downtown Winnipeg.
"They are being asked to do more with less, and right now the city and its leadership is not showing up for them."
The survey, which the union said got 205 responses from paramedics and dispatchers from April 2 to 9 — about a 70 per cent response rate from members who received it — heard 93 per cent of paramedics who responded had experienced violence on the job.
Of those, 24 per cent said they'd experienced it daily, and 41 per cent said it happened weekly.
Ross said stress was also a key theme that emerged: 67 per cent said they either rarely or never felt adequately staffed on shift, and 78 per cent felt drained or burned out because of stress at work.
Seventy-one per cent of respondents said they'd seriously considered leaving their job in the last year, and 63 per cent felt "not at all" or "not very" supported by management.
"It's time for the city to show some initiative, listen to the front-line workers and take action to fix these issues," Ross said.
"Paramedics are not getting the time off they need to recover from difficult calls. They are facing growing violence and they feel their work is misunderstood, undervalued and unsupported by management."
The union said the survey was sent to 287 of its roughly 390 members, a difference it said is because it doesn't have personal contact information for all its members.
A statement from the City of Winnipeg, attributed to fire-paramedic service Chief Christian Schmidt, said while Schmidt hadn't seen the latest survey, he looked forward to getting the results.
The statement said the "increased use of substances like opioids" has intensified some aspects of paramedics' work and increased violence on the job, affecting staff workload and stress.
It added the city has made "significant investments" to its behavioural health unit for members with mental health concerns and said it also recently changed the way it dispatches and prioritizes emergency calls — which is "expected to reduce the number of times we have no ambulances available to respond to time-dependent calls," the statement said.
That change was made two weeks ago, said Schmidt's statement — meaning it happened after members responded to the latest survey.
CBC also requested comment from the province.
Crews 'physically and emotionally exhausted'
Ryan Woiden, a Winnipeg paramedic who also serves as president of MGEU Local 911, representing paramedics and dispatchers, said the level of violence paramedics see on the job has become "unbelievable."
"While people sleep in their beds, paramedics are out there, and they're getting things swung at them, kicked, punched — it's all sorts of things going on out there," Woiden said at Wednesday's news conference.
"When you call 911, you want to know that someone is going to be there, and we want to be there for those citizens. But the reality is the system that we have right now is not supporting the people that are responding, and it's not supporting the people that are expecting us there. Our crews are physically and emotionally exhausted."
Woiden said call volumes are so high right now, there's often no time for paramedics to decompress before heading to the next potentially traumatic event.
"Imagine if you're trying to help somebody and you have a patient on your stretcher in the hospital — and then when you offload them into a bed at the hospital, you walk out to your truck and you realize you've been on [another] call for four or five minutes and you didn't even know it," he said.
"When I know someone's been waiting for me for four minutes, and it's a life or death situation, that puts a lot of stress on me, and that puts a lot of stress on our paramedics — and we need that to change."
All that contributes to low morale and more people leaving the job — whether it's for early retirement, moving to police or firefighting, or leaving the city altogether, he said.
"I believe what we're looking for is for someone to be accountable to try to fix this system," Woiden said, adding paramedics are calling on leadership at the city and provincial levels to "understand that we cannot be any more clear: we need help, and we need it from them today."
He said while "people used to ask the question, 'How many more ambulances do you need?'" whatever solutions come next have to go beyond that.
"If you've got a tap that's just gushing water, and you're filling … cup after cup after cup, eventually the question isn't, 'How many more cups do you need,' right?" Woiden said.
"It's about fixing the original problem, and that's what we need to do."
With files from Matt Humphrey