by: zak vescera
kelly prime has spent decades seeing people on their worst days, but the veteran paramedic says the fourth wave of covid-19 in saskatchewan is unlike anything he’s witnessed.
ambulances are spending hours more on the road to get patients to a hospital that can treat them. when they arrive, paramedics sometimes wait hours in hallways before a nurse or doctor can see them. call volumes are up across saskatchewan; in saskatoon, the local emergency medicine service said they are high as they have ever been.
the result is the sinew binding saskatchewan’s health system together is under strain, and operators worry the very front of the front line staff are at risk of burning out.
“it’s kind of a whole, systemic crisis,” said prime, who runs multiple ambulance services in southeastern saskatchewan and is president of the paramedic services chiefs of saskatchewan.
he said it’s a confluence of both record-high covid-19 hospitalizations and long-term underfunding, noting
ems providers usually receive about 130,000 calls per year across saskatchewan; in 2021, they are already close to 150,000.
troy davies, spokesman for medavie health services west in saskatoon, said the city’s call volume is at a record high, and not just because of covid-19. overdoses, for example, are much more frequent.