The Nanaimo region will get 30 additional full-time paramedics and three more ambulances this year as the province moves to cut response times and boost staffing at the busiest times of the day.
The number of full-time paramedics in Nanaimo will double to 48 from 24, while Ladysmith, Parksville and Qualicum Beach will get two new full-time paramedics each, B.C. Emergency Health Services announced Thursday. Linda Lupini, executive vice-president, said the province hopes to reduce the amount of time that residents wait for an ambulance when they call for help — especially in the most serious or “high-acuity” cases such as a drowning, choking incident or cardiac arrest.
“I think what they’ll probably see is a reduction in our response times, especially for high-acuity calls, because this allows us to ensure that we have more capacity, more ambulances and more crews available,” she said.
Lupini said a review of the region showed there were too many on-call paramedics and too few full-time staff to deal with rising 911 call volumes.
“It’s a tough situation for paramedics who are on call,” she said. “They’re getting paid to carry a pager and then they’re getting paid a different amount to potentially sit at a station and maybe attend a call.”
By hiring more full-time staff, it will stabilize the workforce and create more secure jobs with salaries and benefits, she said.
At the same time, an agreement with the paramedics’ union will allow the province to put more staff on duty at peak times of the day — something that wasn’t possible previously, Lupini said.
The changes will save the province significant money on overtime and on-call costs. As a result, the net cost of adding the new paramedics and ambulances will be a modest $1.5 million a year, Lupini said.
Cameron Eby, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. – CUPE 873, said the union has long argued that there were too few people to handle the workload in medium- to larger-sized communities such as Nanaimo.
“So that translates into longer response times, that translates into burnout of the paramedics, [post-traumatic stress disorder], stuff like that,” he said.
“This addition of resources is going to not only help the paramedics and the workload in the area, but, of course, it’s going to result in faster response times.”
For people in the Nanaimo region, that means “paramedics are going to get to their door faster when they’re having an emergency and even when they’re not having an emergency,” he said. “Many times it’s a non-emergency ambulance call, but the response times still matter.”
The new full-time jobs will be awarded based on seniority provisions in the union agreement, the province said.
On-call paramedics in the Nanaimo region can apply for the jobs, as can on-call and full-time employees elsewhere.
The province recently added 10 full-time and eight regular part-time paramedics and three ambulances in Vancouver. Lupini said other areas of the province are under review.
“We will be looking in the Interior, Kelowna, a lot of rural areas in B.C. as we go through this,” she said.
