The tragedy that occurred at the CHAUR emergency room in Trois-Rivières on February 9 highlights the fact that expanding the role of paramedics in the health and social services network is a way forward. Faced with the overload of emergencies, a phenomenon exacerbated by the pandemic, paramedics can play an increased role within the chain of care.
Did you know ? If you call 911 for an ambulance, paramedics will have no choice but to take you to a hospital emergency room. However, very often, these workers are able to see that their patient will not be considered an emergency at the hospital triage. They know that he will be redirected to a family doctor, to home support, to a CLSC service or even that his state of health does not require urgent hospital admission. And yet…they have no choice but to take her there!
Since 2006, paramedics have had a college diploma in pre-hospital emergency care; some even pursue advanced training at university. With this professionalization, more and more medical acts have been delegated to them. But their expertise and skills remain underutilized by a network that seems to have difficulty integrating the notion that paramedics are no longer the “ambulance drivers” of yesteryear.
If you pass in front of the emergency room of a hospital center, there is a great chance that you will see several ambulances waiting there, one behind the other… Paramedics are waiting there, with their patient, for the hospital emergency room to be able to support them. Therefore, they are not available to respond to another emergency call. This causes a domino effect on all the other paramedic teams. This can lead to situations where an area is downright “open,” meaning no ambulance is available to respond in a timely manner to an emergency in that area.
In short, to guarantee the best possible care and services to the population, to reduce work overload and overtime, but also to partially relieve the overload of personnel in emergencies, paramedics should be able to fully exercise their role, in particular regarding the medical assessment of their patient.
In recent years, our unions have taken part in several projects with employers and with successive governments to improve the organization of pre-hospital services in Quebec, for the benefit of the entire population, without denying the primary vocation of paramedics as a pre-hospital emergency service.
This is why we are calling on the government to take action, without waiting for another tragedy to occur.