Staffing crisis led to ambulance ‘code black’ over long weekend: union president

An undated photo of an Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services ambulance. (AM800 File Photo)

The president of the union representing paramedics at Essex-Windsor EMS says a “code black” this past long weekend meant there were no ambulances available to respond to emergency calls.

The incident happened on Saturday, according to CUPE Local 2974 president James Jovanovic.

He says the situation isn’t new, calling it the result of a long-running staffing crisis that’s been building for years.

“We did not arrive at this point suddenly. This has been a slow moving staffing crisis that leadership has watched develop in real time,” Jovanovic said.

“We’ve been sounding the alarm on this for years. The tragedy is not telling that leadership wasn’t aware of. They knew and they still chose not to act.”

Jovanovic said staffing pressures are forcing units out of service.

“On a daily basis we’re having ambulances taken off the road simply because we have no staff available to fill them,” he said. “That means less available ambulances to respond when there’s an emergency, and a lot more overtime being paid for staffing to compensate for this deficiency.”

He said the system is being propped up on a day to day basis.

“We have overtime and paramedics working on overtime every single day. So if the system depends on constant overtime to function, then the system is understaffed, plain and simple,” he said.

He said without changes to recruitment, retention and working conditions, these types of service gaps will continue.

Earlier this month, Jovanovic warned that the union was moving toward potential strike action after conciliation ended May 8 without a deal and all future bargaining dates with the County of Essex were cancelled.

The union is awaiting the Ontario Labour Relations Board to rule on an Essential Ambulance Services Agreement that would determine staffing levels during a strike.

That ruling is expected by late June or early July, and could result in significant service reductions, potentially ranging from 20 to 40 per cent, depending on the labour board’s ruling.

With files from AM800’s The Kyle Horner Show with guest host Brian Masse