Toronto Paramedic Services facing staff crisis, union head says

As we continue recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, its toll – combined with recent major events and increasing calls for service – paramedics in Toronto say they’re facing a crisis and things could get worse if there aren’t changes.

“The current state of the service I would say we’re definitely in a major thunderstorm and probably heading for a category five hurricane,” Mike Merriman, the unit chair of Toronto Paramedic Services at CUPE Local 416, told CityNews.

“I can tell you in the paramedic community Toronto is not the most desirable place to work for some obvious reasons: The call volume is extremely high, the workload is probably the highest in the province … paramedics are going 12, 13, 14 hours a day without even being able to get a lunch break or to get breaks.”

Feeding into the concerns, he said, is Toronto’s high cost of living — something that is forcing paramedics to live farther away and drive longer along with burnout from COVID-19 and an increase in reports of assaults against crews.

“I’m very concerned that we’re not going to be able to attract any medics and also about retaining them. We’re probably having a resignation roughly at least once a week,” Merriman said.

But another issue is at play amid the current situation. Pandemic restrictions impacted the ability to fully train up hundreds of new paramedics, which means occasionally redirecting paramedics who do community programs into stations to respond to 911 calls along with asking workers to do more.

“There’s daily overtime, every day if you want it — day or night you can have over time — but they’re just exhausted. I mean a service shouldn’t have to rely on overtime to run and it’s daily,” Merriman said, noting overtime shifts are sometimes offered up to three weeks in advance.

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Relief is on the way though. A new class of Toronto paramedics just marked their graduation, just some of the 200 expected to join the service by the end of 2022.

Toronto Paramedics Deputy Chief Jennifer Shield told CityNews that 140 of those positions will be replacing retired employees or those who quit while 60 positions are new.

“Have we seen a reduction in the number of applicants? Yes, we have, but we still had close to 500 applicants in our recruitment this year,” she said.

Shield echoed concerns about difficulties students face catching up and graduating college, something that could take up to a couple of years to correct.

Also, well-known delays in offloading patients at hospitals still are a problem as paramedics can spend hours waiting there. Those delays at hospitals can have a ripple effect on the ability to respond to other calls.

“The last two years have been particularly difficult with the pandemic and just to say upfront really proud of our staff because they’ve really gone above and beyond in the last two years, but it’s taken its toll,” Shield said.

While Merriman said the service is not a bad employer, competing forces and cheaper cost of living elsewhere are profoundly impacting Toronto’s situation. He’s calling on the provincial government to do more to fix things.

“It’s only a matter of time before somebody is going to do die needlessly waiting on an ambulance,” he said.

CityNews contacted Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones’ office to ask what provincial officials are doing in response to ongoing staffing issues.

A spokesperson said in a statement the government is working to expedite “entry-to-practice” exams, allowing student paramedics to work longer with services before taking exams, approving a new advanced care paramedic program at Confederation College’s Thunder Bay campus and increasing mental health resources.