Paramedic staffing strained across Nova Scotia

During a 20-day period in July, there were 34 ambulances that went unstaffed in Nova Scotia.

The union representing the province’s paramedics is warning that backlogs in Nova Scotia’s health-care system are trickling down to the availability of emergency care.

“The problem is for a variety of reasons vacancies aren’t being filled,” said Terry Chapman, business manager for Local 727 of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

“This isn’t a money thing. It’s a system wellness and paramedic wellness issue.”

The union tracked unfilled vacancies on scheduled shifts from July 4 to July 23 in the western, northern and eastern (including Cape Breton) regions of the province.

The vacancies ranged in cause from illness to injury to paramedics being prevented from working a shift because their previous shifts ran too long.

Most paramedics work 12hour shifts and are not permitted to work more than 16 hours straight. They are then mandated to have 10 hours of rest before starting a new shift.

“One of the main contributing factors is offload delays at the hospital,” Chapman said. “Ambulances sometimes tied up hours past the scheduled end of their shift waiting with a patient for them to be admitted to hospital. When they do get home, they are fatigued, they are tired.”

He warned that having to wait with a patient in a crowded emergency room also means those paramedics are unavailable to respond to other emergencies.