Union wants auditor to review ambulance service

SASKATOON — The Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan wants the provincial auditor to review ambulance services in rural parts of the province.

However, according to the Ministry of Health, some of HSAS’s concerns are already being studied.

HSAS president Karen Wasylenko said at a media conference Thursday in Saskatoon that some health regions aren’t filling vacancies in order to save money.

In a September Market Supplement report, health regions said there were no service delivery issues related to recruitment and retention and minimal turnover, but then rural regions posted 54 vacant positions, she said.

“Without an independent inquiry, Saskatchewan health regions will be free to continue to play these kinds of bureaucratic shell games with people’s lives.”

Cypress Health Region has the highest vacancy rates as of July, with one of two full-time positions and four of 10 part-time positions unfilled, according to the union.

The posted positions are predominantly permanent-casual jobs, which require paramedics to be on call for 100 hours per week at $5 an hour with no benefits, Wasylenko said. When a call comes in, they’re paid a wage of between $25.17 and $30.78 per hour.

Having to be on call doesn’t allow them to supplement their income with other work, she noted.

There have also been times when areas haven’t had ambulance coverage and the public wasn’t notified, she said.

The union is in a legal strike position and has been negotiating a new contract since August 2013, Wasylenko said.

The health ministry has brought in an outside accounting firm to help with a review looking at financial records and patient performance of the health regions’ ambulance services, said Deb Jordan, executive director of acute and emergency services.