Paramedics say Toronto has 'bare minimum coverage'

Toronto paramedics say they are understaffed and overworked, but the citys deputy mayor says that changes to scheduling could help alleviate the problems they are facing.

According to EMS workers who spoke to CBC News, they were stretched so thin on Sunday night that there were barely enough crews to cover large parts of the city.

Paramedic Roberta Scott says that happens all too often.

Anger over the issue peaked at a meeting on Wednesday night, which has prompted some paramedics to send a message by refusing to work overtime.

Scott has written to the mayor and to city councillors about the issue.

"The city is running on basically bare minimum coverage, so were saying that you dont have enough cars on the road right now, you dont have enough ambulances," Scott said.

However, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said more staff would cost too much.

Instead, he would like to change staff schedules, which Holyday claims havent been updated in more than three decades.

"We need to be flexible enough to bring them in when we need them and let them go home when we dont need them," Holyday said.

"And thats only good management and thats all were asking for."

While Holyday said his proposed changes would improve efficiency in the system, Scott said the main problem is that with fewer staff, response times are lagging.

"What were all worried about is the next step someone is going to die unnecessarily because they didnt get an ambulance in time," said Scott.

Click on the video above to see a full report from the CBCs Steven DSouza.