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    • Paramedic services maxed out as Omicron spreads

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    Strains on the health-care system caused by the Omicron variant are increasingly seeing paramedics off sick or tied up with patients on stretchers in hospital emergency rooms.

    Dr. Erin O’Connor is the deputy medical director of emergency medicine at the University Health Network in Toronto.

    “We don't have a bed to put them in, we can't move them off the stretcher, and we can’t move them into the waiting room safely,†Dr. O’Connor told Â鶹´«Ã½. “Then unfortunately, they're stuck staying on the EMS stretchers with our paramedic colleagues for an extended period of time.â€

    In Toronto on Saturday, so many ambulances were out of commission or waiting to offload patients that Toronto Paramedic Services had to meaning no ambulances were available. At least didn’t receive an immediate response that night.

    “I mean, that was a life-threatening call,†Mike Merriman, the paramedic unit chair for CUPE Local 416, told Â鶹´«Ã½. “And at that period of time there was no available unit to send within the city.â€

    “The mind of our members goes to, ‘That could be me one day,’†Ryan Willis, the unit’s recording secretary, added. “We don't want to see that in this system. And I don't think I don't think the public does either.â€

    Speedy EMS support is critical for conditions like heart attacks strokes and trauma where timely medical care can mean the difference between life or disability and death. It’s a critical situation, say emergency doctors.

    “It would be a shame, it would be criminal, if a Canadian dies for want of an ambulance,†said Dr. Alan Drummond with the Canadian Association of Emergency physicians “It’s just totally unacceptable.â€

    COVID-19 has exposed long-standing problems with staffing both among emergency responders and the hospital system.

    “It all comes down to a 20 year history of government's failure to address the reasons we have a rich department crowding, which is hospital crowding, and lack of bed capacity,†said Dr. Drummond.

    Despite the circumstances, Toronto Emergency Medical Services chief Paul Raftis says everyone is doing their best.

    “With things like Omicron, then there may be delays to the lower priority calls within our system,†he explained. “This is not unique to Toronto. This happens in every urban EMS system, not just in Ontario, but right around the world right now.â€

    In B.C., COVID-19 has also slashed the number of available paramedics.

    “We've seen up to 50 per cent at some times where we're out of service just because we just don't have the staff,†Ambulance Paramedics & Dispatchers of B.C. union president Troy Clifford told Â鶹´«Ã½ from Vancouver.

    Maxed out, paramedics are already reporting that increased workload is harming their mental and physical health.

    In October, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) conducted a survey of Ontario paramedics and emergency dispatchers. From 1,400 responses, 97 per cent said their workload has increased over the past year, 85 per cent said their workload is harming their mental or physical health, and 43 per cent reported that they face Code Black – one or no ambulance available – on a daily basis or very frequently. Such numbers are striking, and could possibly grow in the wake of the Omicron variant.

    Cities are now turning to firefighters to help with emergency calls as they try to hire more paramedics. Dr. Alan Drummond of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians says more long-term investment is needed.

    “We have just a complete almost disintegration of the integrity of your system. And so when we get out of this mess that we're in with COVID, we're going to have to seriously reflect on how we let it get this bad for so long, and have to start dealing with the issue of hospital capacity.â€

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