Ambulance models are disparate in Quebec, which means that some are too small to accommodate a paramedic in the back. The latter will be confined to the front of the vehicle and the patient will not be able to benefit from his expertise. A situation denounced Thursday by the Fraternité des travailleurs et travailleuses du préhospitalier du Québec (FTPQ).
In a press release, the union said it was surprised to learn that despite an opinion from the national medical director, private ambulance companies in Quebec continue to purchase ambulance models that it considers inadequate.
The FTPQ claims that this type of vehicle, which is less expensive, is intended to replace the current fleet of ambulances. “Yet another issue where profits are more important than patients,” criticized Benoit Cowell, president of Local 7300 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), in a press release. He pointed out that these companies are entirely funded by public money.
The pre-hospital emergency system is currently a hybrid between the private and public sectors. Urgences-santé, which serves the population of Montreal and Laval, is under the Ministry of Health and Social Services. The organization employs more than 1,100 paramedics and more than 110 medical dispatchers.
Elsewhere in Quebec, pre-hospital emergency care services are served by several models, including private companies, worker cooperatives and non-profit organizations, explained David Gagnon, vice-president of the FTPQ, who is also a paramedic, in an interview. Each of these organizations is responsible for purchasing emergency vehicles.
Mr. Gagnon argued that it is at the level of inter-hospital transfers that the small ambulance models pose a problem. “With four people, it allows us to have a paramedic who is familiar with the ambulance environment and who knows how to intervene in a vehicle that is moving,” he explains.
Mr. Gagnon points out that when several members of the healthcare staff accompany a patient, it is because the situation is critical and very often, the ambulance will have to travel above the speed limit. “It is a particular environment that is not known by the doctors, respiratory therapists and nurses who may join the team,” he says.
“Often, the patient will be connected to a monitor-defibrillator in the ambulance, a particular model that we know well. The equipment in the ambulance, we know where it is placed and we know how to intervene. Just knowing where to stand when we are going to intervene can be something important,” continues the ambulance attendant.
The FTPQ is also calling for the nationalization of pre-hospital emergency care services in Quebec. The goal would be to create five major hubs, similar to the Urgences-santé model, which would standardize pre-hospital care across the province.
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