Urgences-Sante hit with staffing shortage in Montreal area due to COVID-19

There are some serious staffing shortages at Urgences-Sante as many of them were off this past weekend because of COVID-19.

The absences made for difficult working conditions, particularly on Saturday when Urgences-Sante was short about 20 trucks during the day serving Montreal and Laval.

For paramedics like Kevin Morson, staffing shortages make for very busy days.

“We come off a call, we get another call right away and it’s just back-to-back-to-back,” he said in an interview.

For high-priority calls like cardiac arrest or stroke, paramedics are there in minutes.

But people with non-life threatening issues should expect to wait.

“If it’s a non-urgent call please call 811 info-sante so you’re going to get some medical advice from a nurse. Maybe you don’t need to go to hospital,” said Jean-Pierre Rouleau, a spokesperson for Urgence-Sante.

But he pointed out if things change, help will be on the way sooner.

“If their case gets worse they can call us back and we’re going to send an ambulance faster,” said Rouleau.

Urgences-Sante said roughly three per cent of its paramedics are off the job because of COVID-19.

Retired paramedic Hal Newman sadi there were staffing issues prior to the pandemic.

“They already had an exhausted workforce. They were already short, probably a few hundred paramedics before the pandemic,” he said.

“There’s an enormous weight on your shoulders, knowing that person has been waiting for you.”

Ultimately, he said, improving working conditions, salary, and graduating more students could solve the problem in the long term.

Morson said, “we have less time to eat, we’re doing calls at the end of our shift to cover the lacking staff so we’re forced to do overtime.”

“It’s becoming more and more recurrent.”

Newman added that the organization doesn’t graduate enough paramedics to satisfy the needs of the community.

“It’s not only Urgences-Sante. There are multiple ambulance services across Quebec. We only have a few CEGEPs graduating paramedics,” Newman said.

Despite some challenging times, Urgences-Sante said paramedics will always be available to answer calls.