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NEWS
Four paramedic positions reduced to part time, one ambulance cut in budget crunch By Craig Bakay Reporter
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EMC News – Frontenac County, who administers paramedic and ambulance services for the county and the City of Kingston, announced last week that four full-time paramedic positions would be turned into part-time positions along with the elimination of one ambulance in an effort to cut costs. The positions reduced are at the Palace Road Station in Kingston and should not affect service anywhere in the county, said Chief of Paramedics Paul Charbonneau. Charbonneau said that currently there are 15 ambulances with
11 staffed at peak times. After the changes take effect May 6, there will be 14 ambulances with 10 staffed at peak. While Charbonneau acknowledged the cuts will have an impact, he still believes his department will be able to maintain the response times the county has mandated. “You can’t take 8,000 hours out of staff time without an impact,” he said. “(But) I’ve had 38 years experience in paramedicine and the safety of the patient has always come first with me. “If I didn’t believe we could still provide the quality of care required, I wouldn’t have made this move.”
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Charbonneau said the department still has its own ambulances in the city, along with ambulances from cross-border agreements as well as the Rapid Response Unit. Since 2009, the county’s paramedic and land ambulance service budget has increased by about 15 per cent. Charbonneau’s 2013 budget began with a 7.37 per cent increase but was lowered to about 1.75 per cent by reducing training, unassigned staffing at events, vehicle maintenance costs and sick time replacement hours. However, the union representing the paramedics balked at the sick time replacement plan. In a report to council Jan. 16, Charbonneau had made the pro-
posal saying: “In 2010, Frontenac Paramedic Services attempted to introduce a practice which would see the first sick call not replaced to reduce costs. We were unable to introduce that strategy because we were in a ‘freeze period’ due to collective bargaining. “In 2013, FPS will introduce a program where the first and second sick call will not be replaced to reduce costs. This would result in potential down staffing of an ambulance on some day shifts. The goal is to achieve 5,000 hours of sick time replacement cost reductions in 2013.” But that plan didn’t come to fruition. “(Cutting an ambulance and
reducing full-time to part-time positions) was not our first choice,” Charbonneau said. “The union exercised its rights and council exercised its right in an effort to control emergency services costs. “I’m simply the person who has to implement council’s decision.” Charbonneau, who is also president of the provincial paramedics organization, said it’s not just Frontenac Paramedic Services that’s feeling the budget crunch these days. “It’s not just us,” he said. “It’s right across the province, along with policing and fire services costs.”