TORONTO – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is calling on the Premier of Ontario to take immediate action to end chronic staff shortages at Ontario’s ambulance dispatch centres.
“This may be the single most urgent health care issue in the province today,” OPSEU president Leah Casselman said. “Ending the staffing crisis at ambulance dispatch centres must be a top priority.”
Close to 30 per cent of the positions at MEDCOM, the provincial air ambulance dispatch centre, are currently vacant. At 12 provincial ambulance dispatch centres, 70 per cent of new hires leave, according to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
Low wages are at the heart of the crisis, Casselman said. City of Toronto dispatchers earn five to seven dollars an hour more than provincial dispatchers, depending on experience.
“It’s no wonder dispatchers leave the cities outside Toronto at the first opportunity,” she said. She noted that this wage disparity exists even though the province pays 100 per cent of the wage costs at all dispatch centres, no matter who operates them.
Ambulance dispatch centres also lose staff to police and fire services, where call volumes are lower and annual salaries can top $70,000 a year. In contrast, provincial ambulance dispatchers earn $45,000 at the top of the pay grid.
Casselman said one symptom of the crisis was the lack of dispatcher-assisted CPR at eight of 11 land ambulance dispatch centres.
“Our dispatchers can save lives over the phone, and they’ve done it many times,” she said. “But the fact is that, due to understaffing, the majority of Ontario communities don’t get this service.
“The Tories ignored ambulance dispatch for years, even as communities were screaming for solutions,” she said. “The new government can save lives by taking swift action now.”
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For more information:
Chuck Kennedy, steward, OPSEU Local 545 (905) 891-3900
Patrick Fry-Smith, vice-president, OPSEU Local 201 (905) 923-2911
Sandy Edwards, vice-president, OPSEU Local 302 (905) 432-6959
