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Interviews Jean Gagnon, Representative of Pre-Hospital Sector of Health and Social Services' Federation, Confederation of National Trade UnionsMay 24-30 is Paramedic Week. On this occasion, our greetings to all the paramedics and all the workers providing pre-hospital emergency services in Quebec and Canada, who are on the front lines of the fight to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. We are pleased on this occasion to publish an interview with a representative of the Quebec paramedics Jean Gagnon. Workers' Forum: Jean, please speak to us about your concerns and demands at this time of intense crisis.
A huge concern we have right now is that with de-confinement, we don't want to end up with a second and third wave. And there's also the high temperatures we're experiencing these days. The heat and the high humidity is very overwhelming for our members who have to wear this personal protective equipment (PPE). That adds to the exhaustion and our response time. Our members need rest time and vacation time, especially since the number of calls will increase. It's also difficult for our emergency medical responders who receive, sort, and dispatch calls, and in the heat of the day they're just as likely to be overworked as our paramedics. A major concern is that the number of calls will increase with de-confinement. Our call volume had decreased with confinement. With an increasing call volume that will return to normal, plus the addition of COVID cases, and the increased response time because of putting on PPE, this could cause us a lot of serious problems. We hope that with de-confinement and the heat wave, the COVID cases will not explode and the volume of calls will not explode. We must strictly follow the recommendations of Public Health with respect to de-confinement. We have to stick together and work together or we will not make it through this crisis. WF: Do you have the staff that you need to deal with the situation? JG: Right from the start of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health admitted that we were facing a shortage of staff in the pre-hospital sector. The only thing that kept things from getting out of hand was that confinement reduced the number of calls. Otherwise, it would have been catastrophic, there's no doubt about it. Because we've been in a staffing shortage situation for years, people are exhausted, so it's more important than ever to maintain rest periods, vacation time, if we don't want people to start collapsing. In the pre-hospital sector, as in the residential and long-term care centres and elsewhere, if we had normal working conditions considering what we have to do, a normal workload, the system would have been able to have some leeway to deal with the crisis, but the pre-hospital system is so backed up against the wall that this leeway does not exist. In a normal workload in our area, paramedic call time is 50 per cent of the shift. Paramedics also have many tasks that are not ambulance call time per se. However, at the moment, we are on call almost all the time, and the workload is enormous. The only reason we've been able to cope is because of the confinement. To give you an example, let's take the on-call schedules [these are schedules where paramedics are on duty seven days in a row for 24 hours a day followed by seven days off. - WF Ed. Note]. We remember that the pandemic first broke out in the Eastern Townships. At that time, employers took the on-call schedules and turned them into hourly schedules, because workers had to be able to sleep and there was a shortage of paramedics. As soon as the number of calls began to drop because of the confinement, they brought back the on-call schedules. The basic problem is that there are not enough paramedics. Plus, even last year, employers were reluctant to give vacations. The means have never been taken to address the shortage. And the task of paramedics is very complex. A paramedic is in the health sector, and he is also in the civil security sector. For example, paramedics are part of the security management of events when people are injured. Hospital workers are not subject to being shot at, taken hostage or involved in road accidents. Paramedics are. Working conditions must be good to attract people to a sector as vital as the pre-hospital sector. In addition, the hiring criteria for paramedics are much stricter than they used to be. People must be highly qualified. If wages do not keep up, people will not stay in the profession. Since 2007, there has been a lot of catching up that was done and we are now owed a wage reassessment. This applies to both paramedics and emergency medical responders, considering what is required of them. It is important that this reassessment be done so that we can retain staff and attract new people. WF: Is there anything you want to say in conclusion? JG: Since the beginning of COVID-19, the pre-hospital sector has made as few waves as possible so that everyone can pull together to help the population. However, the government must not forget this when the pre-hospital sector goes into negotiations and asks for the wage increase that we are owed.
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Jean Gagnon:
Thank you. Our first concern, with regard to the place that COVID plays
in our lives, is contamination, particularly the fear of contaminating
our loved ones. That is why it is so important that we have the right
equipment, the appropriate equipment to protect ourselves. Our work is
complex. We have to consider
the patient's condition, and take into account the environment as well.
When we go into a long-term care facility, the airborne load of the
virus is very high, and when we go into an apartment, which is an
enclosed space where there are people with COVID-19, the presence of the
virus in the air is much greater, so we need the appropriate
equipment.