Lingering concerns about ambulance shortages are at the back of the minds of people involved in contract talks with Windsor-Essex paramedics.
The County of Essex and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2974 have been engaged in contract negotiations, though EMTs in the field continue to deal with delays in offloading patients at hospitals. Once in a while, the problem is so bad that there are no ambulances on the road to handle emergency calls, or what is known as a "code black".
James Jovanovic, president of CUPE 2974, said the stress isn't helping.
"Aside from the stress of it in real-time, these issues have a severe strain on our paramedics," said Jovanovic in response to e-mailed questions from WindsorNewsToday.ca. "They are invested members of this community, with family and loved ones of their own, but, on a basic humanity level, we enter into this profession based on a passion and desire for helping those in need. It's emotionally and mentally crushing to not have the tools and resources in place to provide that needed assistance."
The issue of "code blacks" was brought to light this week when the union posted a photo on its Twitter account, which appears to show at least a dozen ambulances waiting to offload patients at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette campus. But Jovanovic said that it's not a new problem.
"At last week's County Council meeting, EWEMS [Essex-Windsor EMS] senior administration shared data on code red and blacks, dating back to 2021," said Jovanovic. "What we see as a pattern is a spike in these occurrences, beginning roughly at this exact time of year. This tells me that we are just at the dawn of some challenging weeks, or potentially months ahead."
As contract talks continue, Jovanovic said some issues need to be hammered out, but he has been encouraged by the productive dialogue on both sides. Last month, CUPE 2974 members voted unanimously for strike action, but Jovanovic has stated that a strike is the last thing anybody wants.
The union went before the Ontario Labour Relations Board last month, with the purpose being to lay out a contingency plan should a labour stoppage take place. But due to the hearing being tied up with settling procedural issues, two more dates have been set for September for both sides to appear again.
Jovanovic said arbitration was not addressed at the meeting.
"We remain committed to reaching a fair, freely negotiated deal at the bargaining table," said Jovanovic. "However, if we are unable to address the systemic deficiencies in EMS that are negatively impacting the community, we will be preparing for a potential labour action."
In the report submitted to County Council at the May 3 public meeting, Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter said part of the problem involves paramedics who retire or quit.
"The reasons for staff departures in health care professions are multifaceted, such as being closer to family, early retirement, other job opportunities, professional advancement, or a plain desire to no longer be a team member," the report read. "The latter is a phenomenon being realized across health care sectors and brings added pressures to consistent recruiting. From 2021 to 2023 EWEMS held numerous and ongoing recruitment drives and the outcome of each was less than historical results."
The report also showed that in March, EMS spent 53 minutes in "code black" status, and "code red" for 340 minutes. "Code Red" is defined as any situation where there are just one or two ambulances available to take care of emergency calls.
