P.E.I. ambulance company struggling to fill 9 vacancies for paramedics

The head of the company that runs ambulance services on Prince Edward Island says it has nine vacancies for paramedics at the moment, and is having a hard time filling them.

The news of the staff shortages comes days after the story of a West Prince man who died while waiting for an ambulance was told in the P.E.I. Legislature.

In an interview with Kerry Campbell of CBC News: Compass, Matthew Crossman acknowledged that the provincial government pays the company the same amount and doesn't impose penalties even if some Island EMS ambulances have to stay parked because there's nobody to staff them. 

A similar arrangement in New Brunswick caused that province's auditor general to issue a critical report in 2020, calling for changes to the contract with Medavie. 

Crossman said Island EMS has been calling in management staff to fill vacant shifts and has started offering existing staff double-time pay to work on their days off.

"[Island EMS staff] have been tremendous, working tirelessly day and night to provide services not only through the ground ambulance but other aspects of health care," Crossman, the Halifax-based vice-president of operations for Medavie, said in the interview on Monday. 

"We've been very fortunate in the previous few years where we've been fully staffed. For the most part, we may have had the odd vacancy. But when I look today, we have about nine vacancies in our system, which is a pretty large number for Prince Edward Island."

Late last week Liberal MLA Hal Perry told the P.E.I. legislature the story of George Kinch, a Palmer Road man who died on Feb. 20 after having a heart attack on the job at an Alma potato warehouse.

Kinch's co-workers and volunteers from the Alberton Fire Department frantically tried to save his life while they waited for an Island EMS ambulance to arrive. 

There was no ambulance team in West Prince that day, however, and Kinch was pronounced dead after 55 minutes of resuscitation efforts. 

The ambulance still hadn't arrived on the scene. It took more than an hour to come from Summerside.

During the interview Monday, Crossman extended condolences to Kinch's family, but said he wouldn't be able to speak specifically about the incident.

"When situations like this happen, we do take it very seriously, and we do do an investigation to find ways of how we can mitigate that," he said. 

"We want to really take notice and make sure that we make the changes to make sure that the care is delivered in the appropriate time as people need it."