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This article was published 14/3/2015 (2016 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The head of the union that represents paramedics is questioning the need for city fire trucks to be dispatched to all 911 medical calls.

Michelle Gawronsky, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU), made the comment Friday while calling for an independent review of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service to find efficiencies and improve service.

"We believe that fire trucks should only be dispatched to a medical emergency when they can improve the medical outcome, but not to every single call," Gawronsky said.

"Other jurisdictions take this common-sense approach, which doesn’t compromise patient care and makes the best use of health-care dollars," she added.

Gawronsky said there have been "huge increases" in the WFPS budget in recent years without a corresponding increase in calls.

"My understanding is that the volume of WFPS dispatched calls is decreasing, while the fire-paramedic service continues to expand and ask for more staff and more resources for overtime," she said in a statement in response to questions from the Free Press.

"This is not sustainable, and I think it’s vitally important that we have an independent body, that does not have a vested interest in the audit’s outcome, to have a look at the books and do an analysis of what other jurisdictions are doing, and make a decision based on the evidence."

Gawronsky first suggested the third-party review in an article in Friday’s Free Press editorial pages.

In a companion piece, Alex Forrest, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, noted Winnipeg firefighters respond to 40,000 medical calls every year, twice as many as the Toronto fire department, which has more than three times the number of firefighters and many times more people than Winnipeg. The city has 400 firefighters with paramedic training who often are the first to respond to a 911 medical call.

But the MGEU said it wonders if responding to so many calls is a wise use of public money. It also questioned the need to spend more money on overtime for an integrated model when it could "invest smarter and be more innovative."

"Our investments should be focused on ensuring ambulance-based paramedics have the resources to respond as quickly as possible to medical emergencies," Gawronsky said.

Asked for comment late Friday, Forrest referred a reporter to the City of Winnipeg and WFPS Chief John Lane.

The city did not respond Friday to a request for comment.

Manitoba Progressive Conservatives say there’s merit to calls for an independent review of the WFPS budget.

"At least this is a first step toward looking at how you might be able to take the numbers, analyze them and find a way to improve the system," said health critic Myrna Driedger.

Driedger noted Health Minister Sharon Blady has been silent about a recent Free Press report that showed the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority had failed to make progress on any of its emergency room service targets during the past two years, including ambulance off-loads at hospital.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca