Alberta paramedics sound the alarm over shift vacancies ahead of the holidays

An Alberta paramedic is sounding the alarm after providing Global News with a series of screen shots showing more than 200 shifts on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve are currently unfilled.

Going by just the name ‘David’, out of fear of losing his job, the paramedic of more than a decade, says each year around the holidays, it gets worse and worse.

“We’re providing a service that people absolutely depend on,” said David. “It used to be hard to get on in Calgary; you would have to start somewhere else in the province and work you way to a position in Calgary.  Now you can get a spot that’s full-time right out of school.”

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Mike Parker with the Health Sciences Association of Alberta says these shifts not being filled points to a larger issue within Alberta’s healthcare system.

“We don’t have the folks to answer the phone, we don’t have the folks to respond to the emergency, we don’t have the folks in the hospital to take care of you when you get there,” explained Parker. “It’s all tied together.”

Last year the Alberta government announced it was creating a new committee aimed at assessing EMS concerns and providing recommendations on how to improve working conditions.

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Those words are hollow for anyone working on the front lines like David.

“They talk a big game but it doesn’t translate into anything for us,” said David. “We don’t see any of the benefit, we just see more people leaving.”

While the number of paramedics working in the system has remained the same, many say they have chosen to move from full-time to casual in order to protect what remains of their mental and physical health.

In a statement provided to Global News, AHS says the holidays are a bust time for paramedics and they have been proactive to plan several months in advance to address potential increases in demand by adding additional resources, offering overtime, expanding surge capacity and working with emergency departments in order to reduce patient off-loading delays.