By Tara de Ryk
April 6, 2010

DAVIDSON-With the future of housing units at Davidson and District Health Centre unclear, the head of Davidson's Emergency Medical Services wants to make sure ambulance crews are not left out in the cold.

Heartland Regional Health Authority has made public its intentions to divest itself of the four housing units at the health centre.

Paramedic Adrian Schmiedge, on behalf of Davidson Emergency Services (EMS), last Tuesday, told council that Davidson EMS regularly uses a suite in the housing units for members who are on-call duty.

Through an arrangement with Davidson and District Health Centre, Davidson EMS is allowed to use a suite free of charge. Out-of-town EMS employees use the suite while they are in Davidson providing on-call coverage.

"We have four employees that travel to be on call here, which pays $4.12 per hour; with that salary they would not consider coming down if they were not at least given a roof over their head," Schmiedge said.

Because of this support from out-of-town employees, Davidson EMS is fortunate to have one ambulance in service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Saying that, when our first unit goes out we very seldom have second unit coverage," he said.

There have been months where Davidson has not had coverage for 50 to 60 hours.

"If we do lose a place where staff can sleep, we will be in the same situation as others where we will be out of service much more than 60 hours per month," Schmiedge said.

Schmiedge said someone stays in the unit about three days per week.

"Without that, we're pretty much hooped," Schmiedge said.

He points out that other communities in Heartland Health Region are having difficulty in recruiting EMS employees and being able to accommodate them. Due to staff shortages, some of those places are consistently out of service for as much as three days in a row.

He wants to avoid this scenario for Davidson.

Coun. Jason Shaw said if it came down to it, if the housing units are no longer available to EMS, the town would have to look at other options such as renting a motel room.

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.