The Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan (HSAS) recently raised concerns it has over ambulance service provided to rural and remote communities by Saskatchewan health regions.
In a recent HSAS release Association president Karen Wasylenko contended ambulance service is dangerously under-staffed and poorly managed, and called for an independent review of how health regions are performing ambulance service.
"Ambulance or EMS services in many rural and remote communities are near the breaking point, following years of mismanagement and under-staffing by the health regions. While Saskatchewan's population has been increasing, the staffing of ambulance services has been decreasing. Many rural and remote communities are regularly without ambulance service, even though the public is seldom informed by their health region. This is unacceptable," said Wasylenko in the release.
Among several examples stated by Wasylenko was a concern regarding the Sunrise Health Region.
"In the Sunrise Health Region, communities such as Melville, Langenburg and Ituna have recently gone without their minimum ambulance staffing levels, because EMS workers have been regularly pulled to cover staff shortages at a new Collaborative Emergency Centre in Canora. As a result, Melville, a city of nearly five-thousand residents, often has only one fully-staffed ambulance instead of the usual two. This is a classic case of 'robbing Peter to pay Paul'," said Wasylenko in the release.
"The Rural EMS system is based on a broken business model that requires EMS staff to work unsafe hours with no set wage and no benefits, and in spite of the incredible dedication of these staff, the health regions are failing to provide the life and death emergency services that rural communities expect," Wasylenko charged.
Derek Keller, director of EMS/Medical Services with SHR said the situation is not as dire as Wasylenko's comments suggest.
"It's gotten blown out of proportion I think," he said.
There have been times staff has been shifted to the call centre, but not without there being access to ambulance services from another area.
As an example Keller explained Melville has two ambulances during the day, and one operating at night. If staff were pulled to the call centre, staff on off hours, or even Keller himself, who lives in that community, could be called if required.
In a smaller centre, such as Langenburg and Ituna there may be times they have "no ambulance physically in the community," if it is already on a call. In such cases an emergency call would be handled from a nearby community. Using Ituna as an example, Keller said service could come out of Balcarres, Lestock, or Melville, all within 30-minutes, which is a benchmark of rural service.
