HAMILTON, Ontario — Local emergency officials say Hamilton paramedics are stressed, overworked and dealing with unmanageable patient loads.
At a city council budget meeting the Hamilton Paramedic Services Chief Mike Sanderson reported that crews are skipping meals and missing much-needed breaks to deal with caseloads higher than similar cities, reported CBC Hamilton.
To boost the city’s service will required an additional $1.2 million to boost the service with 30 new paramedics, one new supervisor, and five more ambulances.
“Our paramedics are probably the busiest paramedics, per call, across the province,” said Sanderson.
The stress on paramedics is part of the chief’s request for $2,392,540 in new ambulance funding during; half of which comes from the city and the other half comes from province funds.
Council members denied the additional budget request. Sanderson will bring back options to phase in the increases over two and three years.
Mario Posteraro, president of the union which represents Hamilton’s front-line paramedics, says that three year is too long to wait for change.
“The need is now, not over the course of three years,” Posteraro said.
The more overworked paramedics are, Posteraro said, “the less likely they are to perform well. That manifests itself in less optimal clinical outcomes for our patients.”
“Unless there’s some level of reprieve in the course of a shift, when you’re pummeled and the pace is blistering, it has an effect on paramedics,” Posteraro said.
“We have a fairly high incidence of injuries and illnesses. Meal breaks are missed, and even when we do have them, they’re interrupted.”
Hamilton is known as a high-stress place for paramedics to work because of the high service demand on the paramedics.
Council member Aidan Johnson supports the increase in paramedics.
“When paramedical workers are overburdened, people facing emergencies are put at risk,” Johnson said.
Another council member, Judi Partridge wants to see response times increased, but also said the greater concern is how long it takes paramedics to leave hospitals after they offload patients.
“Until we address that, we’re going to continue to throw money at it and put Band-Aids on it,” said Partridge.