Union raises alarm over rural 911 call centre staffing

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This article was published 28/09/2022 (818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When rural Manitobans call 911, they may wait more than five minutes before a dispatcher picks up the phone, according to the dispatchers’ union.

Concerned they’re being stretched too thin to do their jobs properly, emergency dispatchers located in Brandon self-reported the long wait times to their union, which, in turn, described the situation as “dire.”

Tanya Burnside, interim president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said it has heard from “multiple members” who’ve said more than five minutes passed before they could answer 911 calls, leaving emergency callers waiting to get through.

“Minutes matter,” Burnside said. “The outcome can be dire if someone is unable to pick up that call for five or six minutes.”

Provincial oversight organization Shared Health disagrees with many of the union’s assertions about staffing and 911 call delays. Both parties are currently negotiating a new contract.

In a statement, a Shared Health spokesman said there were two calls in August that took longer than two minutes to be answered. The organization stated 97 per cent of calls are answered in 30 seconds or less, and 99 per cent of calls are answered in less than a minute.

The dispatchers work out of the Medical Transportation Coordination Centre in Brandon, and handle all rural and northern Manitoba medical 911 calls, as well as co-ordinate ground and air ambulances and specialized transports, including non-urgent patient transfers.

The two August calls that went unanswered for more than two minutes represent 0.05 per cent of calls, Shared Health stated.

“While everyone’s goal is to have all calls answered within two minutes, if not sooner, this response rate is consistent with historical norms experienced at the MTCC.”

However, the union says the centre only has about half its necessary complement of staff.

Baseline staffing is nine dispatchers during the day and five at night for 12-hour shifts, but that complement has dropped to four or five day dispatchers and three at night, the union says.

Countering, Shared Health said only the equivalent of five of 35 full-time dispatcher positions are currently vacant, with four of those due to temporary leaves where employees are expected to return.

It’s been a long-term issue, but dispatchers started raising more urgent concerns in January, and the problems have escalated, Burnside said.

The union is calling on Shared Health to hire more emergency dispatchers, fix the wage disparity between Winnipeg paramedics and those working in rural Manitoba, and focus on staff retention. It also wants to have 12 911 dispatchers as the daily baseline.

Publicly commenting on union proposals would be inappropriate considering current bargaining, Shared Health stated.

Recruitment has been ongoing, and six new recruits are scheduled to start their training at the dispatch centre Tuesday, Shared Health stated.

“MTCC is mitigating service impacts related to these open positions to varying degrees with use of staff from the MTCC’s casual pool and managers working shifts as dispatchers. This has allowed 911 response times to remain stable.”

Extra duties added to dispatchers’ workloads over the past couple of years, especially, has interfered with answering 911 calls, said Rebecca Clifton, a paramedic and spokesperson for the Paramedic Association of Manitoba.

She said the association hears from dispatchers who are calling for advocacy about their working conditions. They’re expected to arrange and consult with hospitals on all kinds of medical transportation, from Shared Health patient transfers to Lifeflight.

Constant ringing phones and having to disconnect and jump straight to a new call is causing “mental chaos,” Clifton said. It’s strained dispatchers and is increasingly leading to sick days, stress leaves, and making them unable to work, she said.

“When you have a 911 call that’s ringing, and you are already coaching someone how to do CPR or how to deliver their baby… you don’t know if that’s a cardiac arrest (or other life-threatening emergency) that someone’s calling for, so it’s really stressing them out,” she said, adding dispatchers have described being on an urgent call only to have a more urgent one arise, and callers “begging them” not to hang up.

“They have to, because they have to get to the next 911 call.”

911 calls are the priority, but all of the transport groups are important, Clifton said, so the workload is unsustainable.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca