Paramedics in Nova Scotia are taking to social media to once again combat an ongoing issue of personnel availability and shortages.
#CodeCritical is being used on Twitter by paramedics in the province to highlight moments of time when an area of the province has either few or no ambulance crews available for emergency calls.
Over the last two days, a total of 27 #CodeCriticals were called across the province, seven of those were in Southwestern Nova Scotia.
Michael Nickerson, NS Paramedics Union IUOE Local 727 business manager, said the issue stems from a shortage of paramedics, but also the lack of access to primary care in rural areas due to ER department closures.
“Paramedics then have to transport patients further distances to take them to bigger hospitals,” he said.
“Those hospitals are already dealing with their own patients plus patients paramedics are bringing in due to those smaller hospitals being closed.”
This creates what is called ‘Offload Delays’; Paramedics cannot leave a patient until the patient is handed over to hospital staff, but with many hospitals being overloaded by patients from other districts, it could be quite some time before that handover happens.
The #CodeCritical campaign isn’t new, but was put on a hiatus during the pandemic as emergency calls had dropped substantially during that time. However with calls once again rising, Nickerson hopes the campaign will help educate the public on the situation.
He also hopes it will help them address the government about the situation, and convince them to release the Fitch report, a $144,000 report on the province’s ambulance system completed in 2019 and has since been kept private.
“I’ve asked for that report through the Freedom of Information act, but I was told I was not entitled to it and it was fully redacted when I got it back,” said Nickerson.
“Now we’re hoping the public can help us pressure the government to release that report, because it is going to have answers and solutions on how to fix or mitigate some of these issues.”
The International Union of Operating Engineers has a letter writing campaign on their site allowing Nova Scotians to send letters to the provincial government on the union’s behalf to demand the release of the report.
