Paramedic ambulance technicians, affiliated with the Federation of Health and Social Services (FSSS-CSN), denounce new ministerial protocols which, according to them, lead to an overload of work and force them to work overtime. The union, which held a press briefing on Monday, maintains that a member has already resigned due to the measures imposed by Quebec and put in place almost a week ago.
Since December 12, paramedical technicians in the Montreal and Laval regions must remain available to respond to a new “priority 0” call — the most urgent case — during their return trip to the barracks at the end of their shift. “Even though your scheduled working hour is over, you remain available from where you are leaving – the hospital or home – to the barracks,” specifies Claude Lamarche, president of the Prehospital Union, which represents paramedics in these two regions. .
Paramedics therefore do not know when their shift will actually end, which causes them “additional stress” on a daily basis, he says. “Already, a paramedic with 12 years of experience resigned because she couldn’t stand not being able to get to daycare on time [pour aller chercher son enfant] “, he says.
In Montérégie, the union maintains that paramedical technicians must remain available until the “last second” before they “punch” to signify the end of their shift. “When we finish a call to the hospital, the new protocol asks us to make ourselves available immediately, which means that we are not even given time to clean our stretcher, our equipment,” adds Mathieu Lacombe, vice-president of information, mobilization and union life of the Union of paramedics and prehospital workers of Montérégie-CSN. “You imagine all the dangers that this can bring, both for the paramedics and the patient. »
Jean Gagnon, representative of the prehospital sector of the FSSS-CSN, believes that these rules place paramedics in an “unsustainable” situation. “We have never been against going to save lives, except that at some point, our shift has to come to an end,” he said. Paramedics are not made to have calls one behind the other for 12 hours all year round. »
The union reports that since the protocol was implemented on December 12, teams from Montreal and Laval have reported twice that they had to stay longer on duty because of a new call during the return trip.
Further details will follow.