B.C. paramedics understaffed by up to 40 per cent daily due to burnout, injuries, vacancies
CTV
Each day, up to 40 per cent of scheduled paramedic positions in British Columbia are unfilled due to burnout, injuries and unfilled job vacancies, CTV News Vancouver has learned.
Each day, up to 40 per cent of scheduled paramedic positions in British Columbia are unfilled due to burnout, injuries and unfilled job vacancies, CTV News Vancouver has learned.
The remaining workers are struggling with an even heavier workload, contributing to long wait times for 911 and ambulance service and further contributing to the fatigue of a frontline service already exhausted by years of increasing call volumes, which have spiked during the pandemic.
“We’re seeing 20, 30, 40 per cent of our ambulances not staffed because of not enough paramedics, and we’re seeing that same number in dispatch – in fact it’s worse,” said Troy Clifford, president of Ambulance Paramedics and Dispatchers of B.C.
“Paramedics in the same sense know they’re going to be going from call to call to call and know that when they arrive on a Friday night, they know that we’re already going to be down 30 per cent of our ambulances or whatever close to that number.”
Robert Parkinson, the union’s health and wellness director, describes it as a serious decision when a paramedic gives in to burnout, exhaustion and physical or mental injuries, because they know it’ll leave the rest of their colleagues shouldering a greater burden and lead to longer wait times for patients.
"You start combining lower staff levels and higher demand and that creates an issue and you see the last little while with the pandemic, it actually hit us to the core," said Parkinson. “We really need (more) supports to be brought into place and into the framework because hiring more people just means we're going to continue to injure more people."
CTV News has spent several weeks speaking with numerous paramedics in different communities performing various functions. They all emphasized their dedication to their patients and desire to help others, but also expressed frustration with many of the decisions being made on how to run B.C.’s ambulance service; all felt their hard work was underappreciated by senior staff.