Urgences-santé warns that 24 ambulances will be missing overnight from Saturday to Sunday in Montreal and Laval. Response times for non-emergency interventions could suffer as 53 vehicles must normally cover this territory at night.
Posted at 5:10 p.m.
The number of absentees was revised upwards on Saturday evening after an initial assessment of 20 missing ambulances.
“Such a high level is exceptional,” says Jean-Pierre Rouleau, spokesperson for Urgences-santé. “On the other hand, for several months, we have had to combine with a lack of staff. » The Press wrote about the shortage in February.
The fact that it is so understaffed at night may force Urgences-santé to prioritize urgent calls to the detriment of those for whom there does not appear to be an imminent danger to life.
Mr. Rouleau assures, however, that the measures in place do not affect urgent calls. He urges other patients to turn to 811 first for medical advice before calling emergency services, which could be slow to arrive.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, 21 ambulances could not be used, indicates the pre-hospital service company. The critical situation was first exposed on Twitter by the journalist from The Rover Hall Newman.
Mr. Rouleau specifies that for the day and evening shifts, enough paramedic ambulance technicians are available to meet the needs.
For Urgences-santé like many other companies, the shortage of labor is in question, according to the spokesperson. And it doesn’t seem to be going away.
“Our goal this year is to hire more than 100 paramedics, but I don’t think that’s going to be achievable because there’s a shortage of people coming out of school,” he sighs.
Already in 2019, The Press revealed that Quebec could experience a significant shortage of paramedic ambulance technicians as early as 2022 if nothing was done to correct the situation.
Asked whether measures were going to be taken to compensate for this lack of personnel, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) had not responded to requests for The Press at the time of publishing this text.