A spike in staff absences at Ornge over the summer left the air ambulance service struggling to keep bases open across the province.
Data obtained by CTV News Toronto shows that between July 1 and Sept. 30, a number of bases were forced to shut down on 186 occasions due to a lack of staffing.
The minimum staff required to run a fully operational base involves two pilots and two paramedics. If just one of the two pilots is absent, the helicopter is not flyable.
Similarly, if one of the two paramedics is absent, the base becomes unqualified to respond to emergency calls and is limited to the nature of calls it responds to at all.
In these cases, the remaining paramedic is often assigned to a ground ambulance team instead, thus leaving the base completely unstaffed.
Ornge CEO Dr. Andrew McCallum told CTV News Toronto that during the summer, McCallum said the need became so desperate because of short-term absences that pilots were taxied from London to Toronto or other parts of the GTA to man unstaffed bases.
The travel costs procured by the company – often a few hundred dollars a trip – are “worth it” it if it means a base can remain open all day, McCallum said.
But the summertime shortages rolled over into the fall and came to a boil on Thanksgiving weekend.
According to the same data, four of the 11 Ornge Air Ambulance bases were completely out of commission on Thanksgiving weekend because pilots or paramedics called in sick.
McCallum said overall patient care did not suffer as a result but that it left the remaining staff working under difficult circumstances.
“I wouldn’t say I was concerned, but I was thinking about it all the time,” he said. “We gave the best service we could.”
Ornge’s ‘Workforce Planning’ department, which is responsible for schedules, managing sick calls and other absences, says they “multiple tools” to fill vacant shifts at short notice.
A spokesperson suggested that pilots being poached by other airlines have poked holes in their staffing numbers.
“Like other fixed wing operators, Ornge is experiencing the impact of a worldwide demand for pilots. Large commercial operators have increased recruitment efforts and as a result, Ornge has seen a higher rate of turnover in recent months,” Joshua McNamara said via email.
“Ornge continues to recruit fix wing pilots to our operation, with 10 new pilots joining out flight line in the next two months.”
McCallum said he doesn’t believe a shortage in staff is to blame, but suggested a poor morale may be plaguing the workplace.
“I think it’s fair to say there are morale issues, I’ll be frank with you. I think we’ve been through contentious collective bargaining negotiations the last little while. I think it’s different between employee groups, it’s not all the same,” he said. “My hope is we can work collaboratively to make their work-life balance easier but at the same time, be reliably present for patients when they need us.”
Despite this, McCallum said a new contract recently awarded by an arbitrator should help improve morale and hopefully set the stage for better working conditions for pilots and paramedics.
As of now, he says he has a “full complement” of helicopter pilots and paramedics and is only short four airplane pilots.
“So we’re very close to having the holy grail achieved, which is full staffing at the same level of critical care of all our aircraft which means that dispatchers have a lot less difficulty matching aircraft to the particular need of a patient.”
