FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2000
Air ambulance contracts create pressure to fly
less -- and save fewer lives
TORONTO -- Private operators who bid on Ontario's emergency air
ambulance service will only be able to make a profit by flying less
and saving fewer lives, the air paramedics' union says.
"Under the Requests for Proposals put out by the Ministry of
Health in October, air carriers must submit bids based on a fixed
annual fee," said Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario
Public Service Employees Union. "This means the fee the
companies get for the service does not change, no matter how many
calls they respond to. It creates a motive for companies to fly
less, because the less they fly, the more money they make. It's a
recipe for tragedy."
Currently, private operators who fly for the emergency air
ambulance service receive a set fee for keeping aircraft available
for emergency medical use and are paid additional amounts for each
call they respond to.
Private operators will be forced to fly fewer flights because
they won't be able to take their profits from the wages and benefits
of Critical Care Flight Paramedics (CCFPs), said Darryl Taylor, a
CCFP at the Sudbury air ambulance base and unit steward in OPSEU
Local 628.
"We are the best-trained paramedics in the province,"
said Taylor. "None of us is going to have any trouble getting a
different job, and in fact several of us already have job offers
from municipal land ambulance services.
"Any company that thinks it can make money out of
paramedics' wages and benefits is going to have no paramedics,"
he said.
In the Requests for Proposals (RFPs), the Health Ministry allows
for reduced paramedic qualifications in the first six months of the
contracts and reduced numbers of paramedics. MoH also asks companies
to detail how they will "minimize high staff turnover"
caused by the privatization.
OPSEU is calling on Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer to scrap the
RFPs for the aircraft and the paramedics' work.
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For more information:
Darryl Taylor (705) 677-7416 (cell)
Randy Robinson (416) 448-7441; (416) 315-2982
