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Fall,
2000
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This fact
sheet is available in Adobe Acrobat Format 120.32KB |
Air Ambulance
Facts #1
About the Service
- Ontario’s dedicated air ambulance system covers the entire
province, responding to over 4,000 high-level emergency calls per
year. These calls involve pre-hospital and inter-hospital
transportation.
- Critical Care Flight Paramedics have the highest level of
paramedical training in Ontario. There are virtually no qualified
or certified CCFPs outside of the Ontario Public Service.
- The Ministry of Health’s dedicated air ambulance program began
in 1977. Since 1981, the program has served Ontario from
fixed-wing and helicopter bases in Toronto, Sudbury, Timmins,
Thunder Bay, and Sioux Lookout
.
- Critical Care Flight Paramedics work in close conjunction with
physicians at base hospitals.
- Dedicated air ambulance staff are in the Ontario Public Service
and are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
Their work is covered by the collective agreement between OPSEU
and the Ontario government.
The planned privatization
- On Sept. 13, 2000, Graham Brand, Director of Emergency Health
Services for the Ontario Ministry of Health, informed paramedical
staff that their work would be privatized through a Request for
Proposals to be issued in October, 2000.
- 35
"classified" (full-time permanent) Critical
Care Flight Paramedics and three administrative assistants
were given until Friday, Sept. 29 to choose whether they would:
- be included in the RFP, and receive a job offer from the new
private employer, or
- opt out of the RFP, and receive a severance package and surplus
notice from the Ontario government
- All 38 staff opted out of the RFP.
- A further 44 "unclassified" (contract) staff were not
eligible to make the choice. They lose their MoH jobs
automatically when a private operator takes over.
- The Ontario government has offered no rationale for the
privatization.
Consequences of privatization
- A private operator will be allowed to make a profit from the
suffering of Ontarians in dire medical need.
- Ontarians will lose up to 300 years of emergency medical
experience with the loss of the Critical Care Flight Paramedics. The
lost of this invaluable expertise is an increased health risk for
Ontarians. It could cost lives.
- The privatization of air ambulance will result in the payout of
approximately $1.6 million in severance pay under legislation and
under the collective agreement between OPSEU and the Ontario
government.
Air
Ambulance Index Page
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