Paramedics in central Labrador say they're quitting because of the heavy workload
CBC
As Newfoundland and Labrador struggles to retain health-care professionals, two paramedics in Happy Valley-Goose Bay are no longer full-time employees.
They say long hours meant no work-life balance, so they left — and statistics obtained by CBC News show the extent of the problem.
Their union says the situation is not sustainable, and it's having an impact on the quality of service provided to patients.
Cody Lucente moved to Happy Valley-Goose Bay in 2016 for a full-time job as a paramedic.
But he left this summer because the workload at the Labrador Health Centre was too much to handle.
"The hospital did own you. You had no time for extracurriculars, family, pets, nothing," Lucente told CBC News in a recent interview.
"People think that because we're in Labrador, we're a small town and you know, who cares? You probably have one call a day, and you can spend the rest of the time sleeping, but [it's] not true. We're actually a very high-call service."
According to Lucente, the Labrador Health Centre averaged about 4,000 calls a year during his time there.
He says a lack of resources and overworked employees are combining to drive down health-care standards.
"Your quality of work does go down, as much as you don't want to admit it," he said. "We do try our best. Sometimes when you're that tired, you just can't."
And he's afraid things will get worse.
"It's going to be harder to find new medics," he said. "The only way for us to succeed is [through] retention and better management."
Documents obtained by CBC News through an access-to-information request show that paramedics have been working around the clock.
During the 2021-22 fiscal year, six of them clocked in more than 1,000 hours of overtime each. One paramedic was averaging approximately 33 hours of overtime per week.
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