yoyo

Many of Toronto EMS's management personnel still regard Toronto EMS as the 'Centre of the Universe' - it is NOT. While I am a TO Medic I believe that many other Ontario & Canadian Paramedic services are far ahead of TEMS in terms of research, cutting edge scope of practice and certainly ability to manage the service. Yes, Toronto is a large service - one of the largest in Canada - this is one of the EXCUSES that our management uses to stifle scope of practice expansion. I do not share the thought that Toronto is leading the way of Paramedicine. However, I do believe that what happens in the next few days, weeks and months in terms of pushing to make Paramedics in Toronto and Essential Service WILL have far reaching effects on Paramedicine in Ontario if not Canada. Since my original post, our Union has formally requested that the City of Toronto revisit the EASA proposal of 100% of Paramedics, including support staff, being at work during a labour disruption in exchange for Interest Binding Arbitration. As well, the City of Toronto has requested that the Union come back to the bargaining table to discuss the Collective agreement. The Province still has NOT issued a No Board Report and two sides are having sporadic meetings. IF the City and Union come to an agreement on the EASA this still does not mean Toronto Paramedics will be designated "Essential Service Status" similar to our fellow Police, Firefighters and TTC - it just means we will ALL come to work during a labour disruption and have a fair dispute resolution process. Toronto Paramedics on the whole STILL want to be designated as an Essential Service by the Province - and this is why what happens here in Toronto will have far reaching effects. We are still going to push the City to ask the Province to make us Essential and we're also going to push the Province to do so. The question is, will the Province allow just Toronto to be an Essential Service or will they make ALL Paramedics in the Province Essential or use that as an excuse NOT to make us Essential? The next step for Toronto Medics in this battle is at a City of Toronto Executive Committee meeting scheduled for January 24th. At this meeting the Executive Committee is to debate the motion asking the Province to make Toronto Paramedics an Essential Service, much like they did with the TTC last year. The Executive Committee will recommend to City Council how to vote on the motion put forth in October on this topic. The group of Toronto Medics known as Paramedics for Essential Service is planning a Rally at City Hall on Jan. 24th starting at 8am. They will hold a Press Conference and then attend the Executive Committee meeting at 9:30am. Several medics will be making deputations at that meeting. If you are a Medic - anywhere in the Province, or Country for that matter, and believe that Paramedics should be designated Essential Service Status 100% of the time and not just during a labour disruption - when a EASA agreement is triggered - I urge you to to attend this Rally on January 24th. We will be meeting at Toronto City Hall, Nathen Phillips Square at 8:00am. Can we offer anything for your time - only the knowledge that you have included yourself in the fight to be made a True Essential Service - ultimately for the Province and possibly the Country! "Your Life if 100% Essential to a Paramedic!"

Toronto EMS is part of CUPE Local 416 as a Unit. Local 416 covers Outside Workers for the City of Toronto. The Ambulance Unit is not their own Bargaining Unit. We rely on the Main Bargaining table to bring Paramedic concerns to the forefront and a single article in our Collective Agreement to speak Paramedic issues. Also in the Local are: Garbage workers, Parks & Recreation workers, Water supply workers, Animal Service workers, Roads workers. Toronto's newest Mayor, Rob Ford, has a desire to contract out ALL garbage collection in the City to private companies. He has already been successful in accomplishing that for half of the city. Riding on that success, the Mayor has now decided to go after the other half. Here we go... Paramedics in the Province of Ontario, including the City of Toronto, are NOT considered an Essential Service like our fellow Police Officers, Firefighters - and in Toronto - our Transit system; as of a few months ago. However, Paramedics do work under what is known as an ESA agreement. This is an agreement between the Paramedics (Local 416) and the employer that stipulates how many ambulances will be staffed during a Labour disruption. In Toronto that was 75%. Prior to the Unions contract expiring, the City of Toronto asked the Ontario Labour Board to increase that number to 120%. After receiving this information the Union contacted the City and offered 100% staffing levels for Paramedics - as long as it included Ambulance Support Staff (the people who deliver supplies, fix our equipment and trucks and schedulers who ensure stations are staffed) and something referred to as Binding Interest Arbitration (BIA). BIA is a 'dispute resolution process' that is given to workers that no longer have the right to strike. BIA ensures that when there is a dispute between an employee and employer it is resolved by a 3rd party arbitrator. The City refused the offer flatly! Why? Because by going to the Labour Board The City hoped to maintain 100%+ ambulance coverage (taking away Paramedics right to strike) and not giving anything in return! No dispute resolution process. Then the City of Toronto started "negotiations" with 40+ pages of concessions. Then, after only a few days, they - The City - immediately called for "conciliation" the 1st step in preparing for a Lock Out! Why? Because they were betting that the Labour Board will give them what they wanted. What does this do? It allows them to Lock Out the Garbage workers (as well as the people who operate ice rinks and rec. centres, plow & repair the roads, protect animals etc.) but NOT Paramedics. A huge liability for the City during a Lock Out! Today the City, with only two half days of negotiations, "Called for a No Board Report" which places them in a position to Lock Out workers as soon as Jan. 30th! Will they - probably! We'll see? The same day, shortly after the No Board Report, the Labour Board's decision came in. The Vice-Chair (in charge of the hearing) used language in his decision that clearly stated he understood the City's intentions. Several times in his written decision, he stated Local 416's intentions to NOT strike but the City's desire to create a Labour Disruption through a Lock Out! However, he did increase the staffing level to 85% during a labour disruption. That means Paramedics in Toronto are only considered 85% essential. It is ironic that the City - after being offered 100% staffing in exchange for BIA by the Union AND a motion at City Council to make EMS an Essential Service which was defeated and sent to Executive Committee (virtually killing it) - the City used the argument that Paramedics ARE Essential at the Labour board. Quotes from City Lawyer at the Labour Board... "Toronto EMS is not reaching our target response times now, and for every vehicle that is not there, the response times go up" "anything less than 100% will only make an already bad situation even worse" "patients are party to the collective agreement, the ESA should not be structured in such a way that there are negative consequences to vulnerable parties who are outside this dispute" (if there was ever an arguement for true essential service then this statement from the city is it !!) " we do not want to see response times increase which could potentially lead to tragic circumstances" "there are 3 circumstances where patients will die avoidably due to long response times where paramedics are qualified to definitively correct the life threat - sudden cardiac arrest, a blocked artery to the heart, and non life threatening illness and injury with significant pain where paramedics can provide pain relief ie a child with a broken leg - the 'human decency' piece- Medics can provide symptom relief" The City may now come back to the Union and renegotiate staffing levels due to concern over liability. They may not. That remains to be seen. My opinion is that Paramedics ARE Essential! They should be considered Essential! Across the Province - if not the country. I believe what happens here in Toronto over that next few days and months - unlike Toronto's EMS's "cutting edge" scope of practice - will have far reaching effects on Paramedics across the Province and their desire to be, or not to be, considered an Essential Service. Regardless of your personal opinions of Essential Service for Paramedics I request that you support our cause during our trying times with Mr. Ford and the City of Toronto.

From the Ontario Ministry of Health Web site… http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public...du/schools.html …these Ontario Colleges are the only programs recognized by the Ministry of Health to allow a graduate to challenge the A-EMCA Exam. The UofT program is not listed. However, upon some additional research… http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~registrar/cal...IN_PARAMEDICINE http://db2.centennialcollege.ca/ft/FMPro?-...ogram+Code=9101 …it seems that Centennial College offers a “Joint Program” with UofT (Scarborough Campus) in Paramedicine. 1st Year at UofT, 2nd & 3rd years at both UofT and Centennial and 4th year back at UofT. This gets you both a diploma and degree. The diploma (from Centennial) is what you need to qualify to write the A-EMCA. 1. There is a Bridging program offered by Centennial (more money to Centennial!) that allows graduates of other programs to achieve eligibility for admission to the Joint Paramedicine Bachelor of Science Degree at UofT. (More money for UofT!) 2. If there are other Universities offering degrees in Paramedicine not affiliated with an Ontario College, you would likely have to challenge the “Equivalency Process”… http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/public.../edu/equiv.html …to see if you can hold an A-EMCA certificate. You may have, or not have, to write the A-EMCA Theory Exam as part of this process based on your education and experience. Apparently Canadian Therapeutic College, a Private College in Burlington, has an agreement with Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia for advanced standing for a degree completion (through distance education) in the Bachelors Degree of Clinical Practice (Paramedic). This is once you have graduated from the college program. http://www.canadiantherapeuticcollege.com/...end_program.htm P.S. By the way, the 1st link to approved colleges actually shows twenty-two (22) Ontario Colleges offering a Paramedic Program. That’s now almost four hundred (400) students every year looking for work in Ontario! (at a conservative 18 graduates per college)

The cynic in me says this has nothing to do with “education” and everything to do with money. If you have a degree (or two years of previous ‘university’) this counts towards the (now) four year nursing degree. That means you’ve paid money, at least to some university, for at least two years of “education”! Paramedicine is college education – no money to the universities. Yes there is a Paramedic degree offered by Uof T. This more than likely an attempt to ‘cash in’? You still need the College Program to be eligible to write the Ontario A-EMCA exam if I’m not mistaken. Who here who has been through both the RN program and the Paramedic program? Can you enlighten us as to what are the differences/similarities are? What more does an RN program include/encompass? Colleges in Ontario (where I am educated and work) are not exempt from the cash grab either! At last count there are at least sixteen (16) community colleges and three (3) private colleges running a Primary Care (PCP) program. Let say each college graduates eighteen (18) students (probably a conservative estimate) – that’s 342 people looking for precious few jobs available in this province right now. {Approx. 1200 applicants wrote last year Centralized Testing Exam (for Toronto, Durham, York, Peel and Halton Regions). Only about 200 of those went on to the second of 3-4 steps of employment.} That’s on top of all of the other graduates from the previous few years ALSO looking for jobs. When these college publish success rates, these rates are either A-EMCA (provincial certification exam) pass rates or employment rates that include graduates working in any job that resembles Paramedicine including Patient transfer and First Aid/CPR teaching. Not just graduates who have been successful in finding employment in an Emergency EMS service.

Here is an example.

Hamilton (Ontario) EMS uses a 360 degree horizontal band on each leg as opposed to a stripe. This is to afford visibility in any direction as opposed to just when the individual is standing sideways to the onlooker. This would seem to be more in line with the ANSI 107 standard. http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=w...3JmXaMv2KuNIIXA

Just to take this discussion along a little further... There is some literature asking "Why do we collar and backboard?" According to at least one research team ( http://www.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab002803.html ) the practice of collar and backboard has never been proved to make a difference either way. In todays 'evidence based medicine' we all collar and backboard because it sounds like a good idea and that's the way "it's always been done"! :arrow: I'm not suggesting that Paramedics all STOP spinal immobilization today and our protocols aren't going to change overnight. But like my anatomy teacher said - "Open your minds, Do some research for yourselves, and draw your own conclusions."

I'd say the answer is wrong! Not like that's never happened before in an answer key - or even a certification exam!

At least one MP is trying to look out for us... http://www.paramedic.ca/NewsPage.aspx?News...mp;NewsTypeID=1 Contact YOUR MP concerning this right now! :arrow: