The new structure for EMS announced by Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen is strongly being supported by the Paramedic Association of Manitoba.
The changes to the EMS system will take some time before being put into effect as more staff must be hired and the proper infrastructure put into place.
Eric Glass, Administrative Director for the Paramedics Association of Manitoba, notes the concerns of small communities worried about losing their station.
“We’ve had some communities come forward that they have concerns about the fact that they will be losing their ambulance station,” noted Glass. “I think it’s important for people to realize that ambulances don’t just sit in ambulance stations. So just because there is an ambulance station in a community, doesn’t mean that there is an ambulance in that station, 24 hours a day, ready to respond to those communities. Those ambulances are being dispatched to calls by the Medical Transportation Coordination Centre in Brandon and they are also being relocated quite often, to communities outside of the community that the people think that they serve, in order to ensure there are not large gaps in the coverage.”
The new model for EMS services in Manitoba calls for a realignment of ambulance stations and full time paramedic staff to improve the reliability, predictability and responsive care.
