‘Paramedics, administrative staff, fellow health-care workers and residents throughout the Interlake–Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA) will all benefit from this new facility’
The Manitoba government is investing $4.2 million to construct a new emergency medical services (EMS) facility in Selkirk.
The project is part of the province’s commitment to developing a flexible deployment model that ensures timely response to medical emergencies across the province, according to the government.
“Manitoba is committed to ensuring high-quality emergency medical services are available to residents throughout our province,” said Cameron Friesen, minister of health, seniors and active living. “The construction of a new EMS facility in Selkirk will assist in our efforts to build a more responsive, reliable and sustainable EMS system throughout the Interlake–Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA).”
The new EMS station will act as an operational home base for paramedics, who throughout their shift are repositioned using a globally recognized, flexible dispatch model that uses computer modelling and predictive deployment to ensure timely emergency response across the region, said the government. It builds on the government’s commitment to enact recommendations made in the 2013 EMS System Review.
The new 7,500-sq.-ft. facility will be constructed on a green-field site adjacent to the former Selkirk hospital, will include a six-bay garage, offices, crew quarters and space for paramedic training. Development kicked off on Sept. 17, and is being handled by Three Way Builders, based out of Steinbach.
Big help
Stakeholders welcomed the new facility, saying it would be a big help to frontline workers.
“Paramedics, administrative staff, fellow health-care workers and residents throughout the Interlake–Eastern Regional Health Authority (IERHA) will all benefit from this new facility,” said Ron Janzen, IERHA vice-president of corporate services and chief operating officer of Selkirk Regional Health Centre. “Work flow out of this station will be fundamentally enhanced to better support the delivery of emergency medical services regionally and provincially, and to better reflect the capabilities of paramedics and their quality of work.”
“From the moment an individual calls 911, emergency response services are mobilized to coordinate potentially life-saving response of medical services in a timely manner,” said Louise Alaire, regional director of EMS, Shared Health. “Investing in a new EMS station in Selkirk will provide staff with a larger, modern facility with space for training exercises, further bolstering the service provided to Manitobans living throughout the Interlake-Eastern region.”
Other recent Manitoba investments and initiatives in emergency services provincewide include:
- purchasing 65 new ambulances, which will represent a refresh of approximately one-third of the province’s overall fleet when delivered
- reducing ambulance fees in the past four years by approximately 50 per cent to $250, making emergency care more affordable and accessible
- creating an additional 149.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) paramedic positions since 2016 including 35 FTE positions in the past year
- declaring paramedicine to be a self-regulated profession.
Since Sept. 1, Manitoba has required visitors to all healthcare facilities to wear non-medical masks to limit the risk of COVID-19 exposure among senior residents and front-line healthcare workers.
In April, the government announced it will provide a 14-day paid administrative leave for health-care workers who are required to self-isolate for two weeks due to possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.
