Medavie Health Services West projects this year they will have responded to more than 40,000 911 calls and the Chief of Saskatoon Paramedic Services says the government announcement Monday, that it is providing $700,000 in 2023-24 and $2.6 million annually, will go a long way.

Kyle Sereda says, “This will absolutely help meet some of that demand as we’re seeing with the number of calls that we respond to on a daily, if not annual, basis. So, is it enough? It’s towards the right path of getting there. We won’t know yet but based on the volumes that we’re seeing now this will go a long way to meeting some of those needs, to respond.”

He says the announcement means Saskatoon will receive two additional ambulances staffed 24 hours a day/seven days a week which will be equivalent to 16 new paramedics. There was also funding for the community paramedic 12 hours a day/seven days a week which will equate to two more full time paramedics.

He says as the population grows and as health needs grow and as the resources become stretched in hospital, long term care and out in the community, the funding announcement will address that demand. Medavie Health Services West says over the past five years, Saskatoon has experienced a 33 per cent increase in EMS call volumes. As well, in the most recent sitting of the Legislature the Opposition NDP revealed reports from EMS workers in the province which shows that their wait times for transferring patients over to hospital care takes away from the time they could be responding to other incidents.

Medavie Health Services West is contracted by the Saskatchewan Health Authority to provide EMS services for Saskatoon and surrounding areas and will start recruitment for the additional staff resources immediately and expects to deploy the additional staffing as early as January.