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B.C. works to address rural paramedic staffing

B.C. works to address rural paramedic staffing

Paramedics will temporarily receive a pay boost

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The Government of British Columbia and the union representing the province’s paramedics have come to a temporary agreement to help address staffing concerns in rural and remote communities.

The deal between BC Emergency Health Services and the Ambulance Paramedics of BC will increase “pager pay” for paramedics who are on call but not actively responding to an emergency.

This pay increase will rise by $10 per hour to $12 per hour.

“What you see in a lot of rural communities is a second ambulance that depends on on-call paramedics,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said, Radio NL reported. “This increases the incentive for people to take those on-call shifts, which is important in establishing services there.”

This wage increase also replaces an incentive launched in June which gave paramedics $100 per on-call shift.

Rural and remote B.C. communities have experienced long wait times for ambulances in recent years.

Reports from 2019 and 2017 discovered that fewer paramedics are available in those communities, or that response times can take longer than in urban communities.

In 2017, the Ambulance Paramedics of BC launched a campaign highlighting the national goal in Canada is to have paramedics to arrive on scene in 8:59.

The boost in pay will help paramedics agree to on-call shifts and lower wait times, said Troy Clifford, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of BC.

“Our hope is with these initiatives that are being put in place temporarily, that we’ll be able to bolster some our, particularly in rural and remote B.C., where we’re seeing an inability to recruit and staff ambulances because of that low and precarious model of on-call pay of two dollars an hour,” he told Global News.

The temporary increase in wages will be in effect until Dec. 31 or the parties reach a deal in their contract negotiations – whichever happens first.


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