After months of frustration and inaction, hundreds of job postings for paramedics in British Columbia have now been posted and an “expedited process” is in place to fill frontline jobs that were stuck in administrative limbo.
CTV News has learned that a lack of human resources personnel at the Provincial Health Services Authority caused a log-jam that prevented hundreds of new and full-time paramedic positions from being filled amid life-threatening shortages of personnel.
“It has not met our objectives and what it’s done is delayed things like this — and that’s impacting patient care, it’s impacting paramedic wellness,” said BC Ambulance Paramedics and Dispatchers president, Troy Clifford.“We were able to lobby with BCEHS and reach an agreement for expedited hiring of over 400 positions that are full-time positions that are vacant.”
Clifford says about half are full-time primary care paramedic positions, while others are irregular positions.
On Wednesday morning the website posting provincial paramedic positions had a new entry for “multiple locations,” though it was unclear how many positions are open.
