Ontario Paramedics Protest Shortages

About 100 off-duty paramedics stormed into city council unannounced last night to protest a lack of funding in ambulance services and what they claim to be "dangerous and unacceptable" response times.

The large throng of protesters congregated outside City Hall at about 6:45 p.m., waving signs that read "Need an ambulance? Don't hold your breath" and "Ambulance shortages=Death."

They then headed into the council chamber where they delivered a letter that urged council to boost funding and add six new 24-hour transport ambulances to augment the 17 already in the city.

The impromptu petition comes on the heels of a critical shortage of ambulances faced by the city last week. For more than an hour last Wednesday, between 1:10 and 2:20 p.m., the number of available ambulances ranged from none to four as the city experienced a sudden surge in calls. The ordeal forced the city to implement an emergency plan, calling in volunteer firefighters and extra paramedics.

Yesterday, council agreed to review the letter, as well as last week's crisis, before making any decisions.

Mario Posteraro, president of the paramedics' union, said the city desperately needs more ambulances to keep up with the growing number of calls and to keep pace with other Ontario cities.

"Paramedics are frustrated and fed up with the many deficiencies with our ambulance service," he said outside council chambers. "We're fed up with the lack of ambulance coverage that has led to frequent dangerous and unacceptable response times."

Posteraro claims paramedics are frequently forced to exceed what he calls the "gold standard" response time of less than eight minutes 90 per cent of the time due to increasing calls and a lack of enough ambulances, which he said comes down to funding. Long response times, he said, can endanger patients' lives, especially those suffering from cardiac arrests.

While money for the city's ambulance service has increased by more than 25 per cent since the city took over the service in 2000, Posteraro insists Hamilton lags behind other cities with a ratio of one ambulance for every 39,000 residents. Toronto, he said, has one per 23,000, Durham region one for every 24,000, and Niagara region one for every 19,762 residents.

"There's a connection between the budget and response times, and this affects the quality of ... emergency care and on a broader note, the health of our residents," said Posteraro.

Jim Kay, fire chief and general manager of emergency services, said yesterday he was reviewing last week's shortage and would include all stakeholders, including paramedics, in the review process.

"We are working with the area hospitals as we speak and the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and dispatch services to clearly analyse exactly what happened on this particular day," Kay said. "We need to understand it if we're going to be able to try and prevent it."

Brent Browett, director of the city's ambulance services, insists last week's ambulance shortage was an aberration.

On a normal day between 1:10 and 2:20 p.m., ambulance officials usually receive nine to 10 urgent or emergency calls, Browett said. Last Wednesday, they received twice the normal volume of these calls.

To make matters worse that day, four ambulances that should have been available were tied up at St. Joseph's Hospital as they waited for their patients to be admitted.

"We certainly were concerned over what we still believe was an aberration last week," Browett said. "We'll be looking at whether there were enough resources at the time."

He conceded that should the review find a shortage of ambulances to be a real problem, he won't hesitate to make suggestions to city council.

pchoi@thespec.com

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