County Adds 12 Hour Shift to Paramedic Service

Jeff Green | Feb 15, 2023

In their debate over upgrades to ambulance service in Kingston, Frontenac County Council has opted, as planned, to introduce a new 12-hour shift in Kingston starting in April of this year.

As well, in response to a proposal from Chief of Frontenac Paramedics Gale Chevalier, an additional 12-hour shift, also based in Kingston, will be added in October.

The new shift is being brought forward as a response to added demand in the City of Kingston, as well as the impact of the stress that the Kingston General Hospital Emergency department has been under over the last 2 years.

“Until recently, we were doing well in Kingston in terms of offload times, freeing up the ambulances to receive other calls. But delays are up by 775% over the past year because of what has been going on in the hospital. This puts a lot of added stress on paramedic resources,” she told Council at their budget meeting last week.

When an ambulance arrives at hospital, the paramedics cannot leave until the hospital is able to take over responsibility for the patient.

“The hospital is taking measures to address the problem, but between that and the increase in call volumes we have seen, there is a lot of demand for ambulance service in Kingston,” she said.

The statistics bear this out.

One of the measures used for paramedic services is called unit hour utilization (UHU). The accepted target for UHU is 0.35. But in Kingston, the UHU rose to 0.71 in 2022, Chevalier said.

The net impact of that level is slower response times in Kingston, and in addition a tendency for resources to be pulled from rural ambulance services in Frontenac County at Sydenham, Parham, and Robertsville, into Kingston.

This happens either through standby when there are no ambulances available in Kingston, or when a rural ambulance brings a patient to Kingston hospital, and then begins being assigned to call after call in Kingston.

Ambulance dispatch is seamless. The closest available ambulance is assigned when a call comes in, regardless of where that ambulance is normally stationed.

“The increase in service in Kingston with these new 12 hour shifts, should make more resources available in Frontenac County,” said Chevalier.

Chevalier presented Council with three options to finance these new shifts going forward, each impacting service on Wolfe Island.

The first option would maintain an hour shift, and a 16 hour standby system on the island. However, Chevalier pointed out that for a couple of reasons, Frontenac Paramedics have been unable to staff that service over the last 18 months.

“In fact, it was staffed only 6 days in 2022, and not at all so far in 2023” Chevalier said.

Part of the reason the service is almost never available is that all volumes are very low on the island. The UHU is 0.07. The other is that unionised paramedics can opt to work a 12 hour shift in Kingston when one is available, instead of an 8 hour shift on Wolfe Island, so they opt for the better paying shift most of the time.

The second option proposed by Chevalier would be to upgrade the Wolfe Island service to 12 hours, thus making it easier to staff, in the hope that service will be more available than it is now. This option is more expensive than the first option.

The third option is to eliminate the Wolfe Island Service from the budget, allocate the 8 hours to the new Kingston shift, and only have to increase costs to cover 4 hours of the new 12-hour shift.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers said that she wanted to see Wolfe Island service maintained, and pointed to close calls on the island that would have been less risky if there were an ambulance available, instead of depending on the ferry to return to Kingston and pick up an ambulance.

“I don't like the idea of Wolfe Island being without ambulance service, which is provided to everyone else. The residents pay taxes just like everyone else and we have a higher proportion of seniors than other townships in Frontenac County, and seniors use these services the most,” she said.

South Frontenac Mayor Vandewal took exception to Greenwood-Speers comments.

“It is not true that Wolfe Island does not have ambulance service, any more than it is true to say North Frontenac does not have service if the Robertsville ambulance is on standby or answering calls in Kingston. An ambulance will be sent to any call that comes in from North Frontenac. It may come from Parham, or somewhere else some of the time, but it will be sent and there is service. When someone moves to Ardoch, they should be aware that they are not going to get the response time for an ambulance that they would get in Kingston, that's the way it is.

“There are services in Kingston ready to answer calls on Wolfe Island right now, and if the new ferry comes in May like it is supposed to, they can get there quicker than they do now. To say there is no service is just not true.”

In a straw vote, Council indicated they will be supporting option 3, cutting the Wolfe Island service and funding 2 new 12 hour shifts in Kingston, starting in April and October respectively.

The final decision will come this week, when the Frontenac County budget is up for approval.The final decision will come this week, when the Frontenac County budget is up for approval.