Nova Scotia buys powered stretchers, loaders to improve safety for paramedics

Nova Scotia will spend $2.7 million on new stretchers and patient loaders in an effort to improve safety for paramedics. 

The equipment will allow patients to be lifted into ambulances with the push of a button, the Health Department said in a news release Wednesday. 

Sixty-two ambulances will be equipped with the new powered stretchers and loaders.

The money will come out of a federal-provincial funding agreement covering home and community care, mental health and addictions service. 

The stretchers and loaders will be installed in the ambulances early in the new year after paramedics are trained to use them.

The union that represents the province's 1,207 paramedics welcomed the purchase. 

“Nova Scotia’s paramedics go through enough, we shouldn’t be adding lifting 500 pounds or more multiple times a day to that,” said Michael Nickerson, President of IUOE Local 727, in a news release.  “Right now, the average age of an EMS worker is 40 years old. Their bodies just can’t handle this kind of lifting day after day. These systems are career saving.”

"Right now, the average age of an EMS worker is 40 years old. Their bodies just can’t handle this kind of lifting day after day. These systems are career saving."

- Michael Nickerson, president of paramedics union

Power load stretcher systems are used in services across Canada, such as Alberta, Niagara and Peel County in Ontario, the union said in the release. In Alberta, a 2015 pilot project of the system resulted in no lift-related injuries being reported by staff, compared to 84 lift-related injuries in the same period from staff using manual stretchers. 

“No matter how you look at it, it just makes sense. Power load stretcher systems save paramedics from pain and injury and extend careers," Nickerson said. "They’re safer and more comfortable for patients and they’ve been shown to recover their cost within the life of the system.”

Paramedics have complained of overwork and burnout in recent years. They respond to roughly 175,000 calls every year for emergencies and patient transfers.

Ambulance offloading backups at emergency departments are also a regular problem.

A review of EHS services originally was slated to be released last spring. Last week, Health Minister Randy Delorey told reporters that the review was done but said it would factor into upcoming contract negotiations with Emergency Medical Care Inc., which provides ground and air ambulance services in the province. Delorey said Health Department staff had recommended the report be withheld until those talks were complete. 

Delorey ordered the review back in August 2018. Asked why it took so long, Delorey said the EHS system is complex and it was the first such review in over 20 years. 

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