Local paramedics protesting new ambulance call rules
Peterborough paramedics plan to join a protest Tuesday morning at Quee’s Park in Toronto over changes being made to the Ambulance Act.
The Ontario government is planning to revamp its ambulance system to redirect some patients with less pressing needs to places other than emergency rooms and prioritize calls based on patient need. The new system is expected to start in March.
The third and final reading of a bill to amend the Ambulance Act for the changes is set for Tuesday at the Ontario Legislature.
Paramedics from Peterborough will join fellow paramedics from Belleville, Durham Region, York Region, Ottawa, Toronto, and Perth and Huron counties, for Tuesday’s protest.
The province says more than one million patients were transported by land or air ambulance in 2015, and only one per cent of them were the most critically ill and required immediate emergency transportation.
The changes to the Ambulance Act would allow paramedics to provide on-scene treatment and refer patients to primary care or community care, instead of hospitals, if appropriate.
The government says increased flexibility would reduce unnecessary trips to emergency departments, lessening overcrowding and easing wait times.
But the Canadian Union of Public Employees fears the changes will hurt patients needing emergency medical care.
“Only under exceptional circumstances do we come out, stand on the steps of the Legislature to urge government not to make delivery changes that we believe will put Ontarians lives at risk,” stated Jason Fraser, a paramedic and chairman of the CUPE Ontario Ambulance Committee.
The union also fears the changes will open the door to an expensive parallel fire department-based emergency paramedical system.
“This is happening without adequate regulatory and managerial oversight, instead of moving resources to our existing ambulance-based paramedic services, which are less costly than fire departments to run and have several levels of quality assurance for patients. It is not an exaggeration to say the provincial government is courting death and disaster with these changes to the Ambulance Act,” Fraser stated.
Over the last several years, the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association has pressured the provincial Liberals to expand the role of firefighters into emergency medical care, according to CUPE.
Some of the amendments to the Ambulance Act that will be made through Bill 160, will facilitate this expansion, even though oversight of fire for emergency medical services is completely absent, the union states.
“Most Ontarians don’t even know these changes are happening,” Fraser stated.
“But if passed, this bill will affect big changes we feel will be negative for patient outcomes and cost municipalities more for emergency medical services.
“We engaged in discussions with this government for more than two years urging them not to go forward with them. We are not alone in flagging concerns, making constructive amendments to the government-proposed bill, and, unfortunately, being ignored.”
It is not an exaggeration to say the provincial government is courting death and disaster with these changes to the Ambulance Act.”
Jason Fraser