Staffing shortages a concern for paramedics amid Stampede, heat wave
CBC
Paramedics are raising the alarm about a shortage of staff in the Calgary area over some of the busiest days of Stampede.
CBC News has obtained information from several sources showing, as of Wednesday afternoon, there were 103 unfilled paramedic shifts in the Calgary zone over the next three days — 24 on Friday, 52 on Saturday and 27 on Sunday.
With two paramedics per ambulance, sources say that means roughly 50 ambulances could be parked over those three days.
All this comes during Stampede — when call volumes are typically high due to an influx of tourists and higher risk activities, including alcohol consumption — and at a time when Calgary is enduring an intense heat wave, which can trigger more health problems.
"This is not safe," said a Calgary paramedic, whom CBC News has agreed not to identify due to concerns they'll be fired for speaking out.
"Since 2022, our staffing has been absolutely abysmal. We're looking at sometimes dozens of vacant shifts per day, which translates into several ambulances being shut down," they said.
In an effort to fill the gaps, ambulances are often brought into Calgary from outlying communities, the paramedic said, leaving those areas with less coverage.
"People are waiting longer for ambulances. There's calls to 911 that are coming in where there's no ambulances in the city available. Then the real losers end up being the rural communities, who have to sacrifice their ambulances for entire days sometimes," the source said.
While Stampede is a particularly busy time, paramedics have been raising concerns about shortages for several years.
"We're operating with less ambulances than we should be on an almost daily basis. How can somebody argue that that's safe?" the paramedic said.
"There's nothing but risk associated with that."
Don Sharpe, a retired AHS paramedic who now advocates for rural ambulance care, gets regular calls from his colleagues.
"We expected this. It's just getting worse every year," he said. "These are the highest number of out-of-service ambulances I've ever seen."
According to Sharpe, paramedics are burned out and morale is extremely low.