Short-staffed paramedics lament exhausting working conditions, ‘brutal’ 16-hour shifts

"Working around the clock," describes Chantal Comeau, part of Urgences-Sante. With the shortage in labour for pre-hospital services, it means paramedics in the field have to work longer shifts and attend to more calls.

Quebec is facing a labour shortage in most sectors, and for pre-hospital care it is no different. The sector is missing staff for both the day and night shifts.

For paramedics like Luc Baumont, it means longer shifts and more calls to attend to.

“Most of my colleagues are tired, they’re exhausted, and they’re kind of desperate with the situation because you come to work and you know that is going to be a very long day,” said Baumont, a primary-care paramedic at Urgences-Santé.

“It was announced that because of the call volume and the low number of available vehicles, crews could be kept on the road up to 16 hours.”

READ: ‘We’re tired, we’re burnt out’: Quebec paramedics struggle to keep up amid COVID-19 staff shortage

Hal Newman, a former paramedic who now reports on ambulance shortages across the province, says “the concept of work-life balance is pretty much hypothetical or mythological at this point. The hours are pretty brutal. The call volume is very high.”

While the day shifts are manageable, Urgences-Santé says for the night shifts, out of the 106 paramedics that are needed, there are only 85 on the road at night.

“We have close to a thousand calls every day, so any change in the number of vehicles available on the road will have a direct impact on everybody, both the patients and us,” said Baumont.

“We understand that we’re in an emergency service, but we also have lives outside of that service and at some point, we have the right to expect to be going home at a normal time.”

Paramedic Luc Baumont.(Credit: Luc Baumont/handout)

In order to alleviate some of the pressure, Urgences-Santé says it will be hiring new recruits.

“We will be welcoming 24 new paramedics in time for the summer season and we also have right now another 50 students that are in the hiring process,” said Chantal Comeau with Urgences-Santé.

“They have been working very hard around the clock, especially during the last two years. It has been difficult with COVID. Protocols are more difficult. Everything takes longer as well.”

Urgences-Santé says in order to cut down on the number of calls paramedics have to attend, they encourage individuals to call Info-Santé at 811 for non-urgent situations.

“In Quebec’s case, the pre-hospital care system has just been neglected for about 40 years,” Newman said.

RELATED: Paramedics top list of most respected occupations in Canada: Poll

On Monday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said Quebec will table a new pre-hospital policy in the coming weeks, which should “please” those in the field.

And while it is unknown what the policy will be, Newman says it is a little too late.

“I think we’ve already reached the point of no return,” said Newman, who claims Urgences-Santé was running at 50 per cent absenteeism this past weekend.

“If you try and imagine that in terms of the fire service, can you imagine if the fire service said, ‘half of our stations are closed, try not to burn down your house.’”

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