Wage incentives and a scramble to fill staffing holes kept four of the Coast's six ambulances staffed last weekend (Aug. 29 to 30) up from the two ambulances predicted a couple weeks ago.
"To get everyone back from their holidays, BC Ambulance [Service] actually stepped forward and offered everybody what's called a recall pay. So everybody this [past] weekend was getting paid full wages at double-time," said Gibsons paramedic and shop steward for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. (APBC), Charlie Greenaway.
Recall pay means that paramedics who would normally earn $2 per hour on-call wage or $10 per hour stand-by wage would instead make between $40 and $50 per hour, he said.
"Most of [Gibsons and Sechelt paramedics] came back from holidays with the thought of taking it because you'll never get offered this game again," he said.
Greenaway said to his knowledge, this recall wage has not been offered to regular Coast paramedics before, though it was offered to unit chiefs once last year.
But four ambulances out of six, he said, was still a risk.
"Do I think it [was] adequately covered? No. I only truly believe if we've got all our cars staffed that we're ever truly covered," he said. "[Paramedics] were extremely busy and there were an awful lot of times when every car was out, which can happen very typically."
B.J. Chute, director of public education for APBC, said that BCAS should have dispatched duty ambulances from the Lower Mainland to maintain a full six ambulances on the Coast for the weekend.
"If even one of [the ambulances] is down, then I don't think that's acceptable," Chute said. "I think it just highlights the need for a better service delivery model, especially for places on the Sunshine Coast that rely so extensively on part-time people that the ambulance service treats as volunteers."
But Greenaway said the problem is more complicated, and points back to the wage-related recruitment and retention issues paramedics are striking about.
"Should they have brought ambulances in from the city? I think so; however, there are none. There's no availability. Again it comes back to the recruitment issue: we don't have enough bodies," Greenaway said.
The Sechelt ambulance unit is anticipating further shortages for the Labour Day weekend and said that BCAS has again stepped forward to offer the emergency recall wage as an incentive to get paramedics to cancel plans. Gibsons, Greenaway said, will be fully staffed this weekend.
