Montérégie-Centre | Four ambulances threatened with cuts will be maintained

The CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre finally reversed its decision to cut four ambulances on its territory following a public outing by paramedics worried about the potential impact on services.

On Monday, Montérégie paramedics had sounded the alarm at the imminent cut of four ambulances on their territory, the equivalent of 14 full-time positions.

From 1^er April, these ambulances of the Cooperative of Ambulance Technicians of Montérégie (CETAM) should have ceased their activities, for lack of funding from the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre.

“We’ve been asking for additional vehicles for four years because our troops respond to one call after another, don’t have time to eat and work mandatory overtime. And there, instead of adding, we take four away”, worried, in an interview with The Pressthe director general of CETAM, Martin Benoit.

In 2019, CETAM requested the addition of seven ambulances to meet the needs of the population. In the past three years, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre had agreed to finance, from its budget, four ambulance vehicles, but reversed its decision on Friday by announcing that it was no longer able to do so.

Ambulances in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Châteauguay and Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville therefore risked having to cease their activities. “The vehicle utilization rate is getting higher and higher. The paramedics who will stay will be overloaded. They will crack,” worried Mr. Benoit.

Except that at midnight minus one, the public release of CETAM was finally heard.

At the end of the day, Monday, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre announced that it had reversed its decision to remove these services “for the next few months”. “This will make it possible to ensure the supply of services to the population and to continue discussions with the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS),” said one of its spokespersons, Martine Lesage.

For several years, certain territories of the Montérégie have experienced significant growth in the use of available ambulance resources, she recalls. This is why the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre has asked Quebec for a “permanent and recurring bonus” in the number of hours of ambulance services on the territory, adds Martine Lesage.

Informed of this reversal of the situation at the end of the day on Monday, the director general of CETAM, Martin Benoit, still remained worried about the ability of his organization “to offer uninterrupted coverage in the short or medium term”. “The population needs to know that ambulance services can be funded on a recurring and continuous basis. »

This decision by the CISSS would have resulted in a considerable reduction in ambulance coverage in Montérégie, endangering the lives of citizens in an emergency situation, estimates Mr. Benoit.

It asks the MSSS to provide funding corresponding to the needs in the field. “It’s enough to neglect the paramedics. In Montérégie, we have developed a community paramedicine project to unclog emergency rooms. The thanks that we receive is to cut off four ambulances, ”laments the director.

A service delayed by overwhelmed emergencies

For the past few months, the high occupancy rate of emergencies has had a major impact on ambulance coverage in Montérégie, indicated Mr. Benoit. “When the ambulance vehicle arrives in the emergency room, it can take up to five hours to sort it. During this time, the ambulances are piling up at the hospital center and are not on the territory to take calls, ”he laments.

In addition, CETAM paramedics are frequently called upon to travel to Montreal, since Urgences-santé, the public paramedical company that covers the territory, is facing a significant shortage of personnel, adds the director.

“When there are calls where there is danger of death, they send the nearest ambulance and it can be one from Montérégie. The ambulance then disappears for several hours while it calls out to town and returns to its home port. During this time, we cannot cover our territory,” he explains.

Under these circumstances, CETAM cannot afford to lose four ambulances, the equivalent of 16,000 hours of service per year, estimates Mr. Benoit.

With Tommy Chouinard, The Press