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PHOTO & SLIDESHOW GALLERIES
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| Last updated at 12:28 PM on 06/11/09 |
Private ambulance paramedics expected to start job action  
The Telegram
Private ambulance paramedics in the province are expected to start job action at 4 p.m. today after contract negotiations broke down with the provincial government.
Robert Patten, president of the Private Ambulance Operators Executive Board (PAOEB), said the operators would still be providing emergency service across the province. Hospital-to-hospital transfers and other non-emergency services will now be suspended.
The paramedics are employed by private ambulance operators — all ambulances not owned or operated directly by hospitals.
The operators have been negotiating with the provincial government for a new contract for some time. One of the issues involves government-mandated paramedic wages, which Patten said they have been trying to increase.
The government’s contract offer contained a substantially higher wage for paramedics, but Patten said it squeezed dispatchers, office workers and other ambulance-operator employees.
Patten said the paramedics had given the employers until today to come up with a deal.
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06/11/09
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don from Newfoundland and Labrador writes: The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has ten million tax payer dollars to waste on archaeological digs in Cupids and hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars to expropriate Abitibi-Bowater and tens of millions more tax payer dollars to waste on other highly questionable schemes and plans. However, the Government has no money to help pay decent wages to para-medics and provide adequate fee for service costs to private ambulance owner-operators. These ambulance personnel provide an essential life saving service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Where are the priorities of Dictator Danny's government? I recall that about 25 years ago a businessman from around the bay tried to establish the first para-medic ambulance service in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Progressive Conservative Government of the day strongly opposed the man. His application to the Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities for an ambulance service license was refused. For good measure, the Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities also refused a separate application which he had submitted for a taxi service license. Clearly, Government made sure that he was punished for trying to improve the emergency medical services in the Province. In Newfoundland and Labrador, no good deed goes unpunished by the Government. While the Government did eventually recognize the need for para-medics and allowed them to obtain training and begin service in the 1990's. Other than some partial improvement, it still appears that nothing much has really changed in the provision of ambulance services in 25 years! Newfoundland and Labrador will never follow the lead of Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick who have established Province wide ambulance services operated by a single company with totally integrated dispatch and response services staffed by professional Para-medics who operate top of the line ambulances with top of the line equipment. We have to be satisfied with poorly paid and poorly equipped services whose level of service varies greatly from place to place. Apparently, Dictator Danny has other more important priorities upon which to spend his oil and mineral money. I wonder what those priorities are? Oh yes, I remember, that money is needed to pay for expropriations, archaeological digs and Royal visits!
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| Posted 06/11/2009 at 1:34 PM | Alert an Editor | Link to comment |
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Greg Downe from Nova Scotia writes: I think it is time for the province to take over the Ambulance Service and set it up into regions. Private operators are only making money off the backs of overworked paramedics.
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| Posted 06/11/2009 at 3:37 PM | Alert an Editor | Link to comment |
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don from Newfoundland and Labrador writes: Sub-standard ambulance service is the direct result of a sub-standard Government in an economically sub-standard Province. So, what else is new here? There are plenty of well paid para-medic jobs open in Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Ontario, Western Canada and all over the USA. The local para-medics should quit their jobs here and move out of this province to get some excellent pay, decent training and good working conditions. Let the little dictator look after the sick, injured and dying patients.
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| Posted 06/11/2009 at 3:55 PM | Alert an Editor | Link to comment |
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