Yesterday, the Province of Manitoba celebrated its renewal of the STARS air ambulance contract at a cost of $84 million over 10 years. While we acknowledge that STARS provides life-saving interventions to critically ill patients, but STARS alone can’t fix Manitoba’s emergency response crisis.
What the government failed to mention is that STARS typically relies on Shared Health paramedics on the ground to respond first and then call in STARS when needed. But those Shared Health paramedics are so few in number – with over 200 vacant positions to be filled – that some Manitobans are waiting an hour or more for them to arrive in a medical emergency.
The Manitoba Government promised an additional 200 paramedics, 90 of which were supposed to have been added within the 2024/25 Budget year. At the close of the year, Manitoba had seen a net gain of just three paramedics due to ongoing retention issues and a lack of investment in training and recruitment.
“This contract renewal doesn’t get to the root of the issue: Shared Health’s approach to paramedic recruitment and retention has failed,” says Jason Linklater, MAHCP President. “Government can only fulfill their promise to rebuild the paramedic workforce if they develop and invest in a comprehensive plan to train, recruit and retain paramedics. So far it’s not happening, and Manitobans living or travelling in rural communities have unequal access to emergency care due to continued inaction.”