BARRIE, ONT. -- Paramedics in Simcoe County hoping to receive the COVID-19 vaccine say they feel left behind because most of them have yet to receive it.
Cory Schepers, paramedic and president of OPSEU local 303, the union representing Simcoe County paramedics, said he and his colleagues regularly treat and transport patients with COVID-19 and that there is widespread frustration that they are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine.
He said anxieties have recently been made higher because of the UK variant outbreak at Roberta Place Long-Term Care home in Barrie. Paramedics are inside the facility regularly.
"Daily, multiple times a day even," Schepers said. "We are going in, we're going to assess and treat patients there, and if need be, we will transport them to the hospital."
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit began rolling out the vaccine in late December and has administered more than 16,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to priority groups identified by the province.
So far, the focus has been on residents of long-term care homes and retirement homes, staff and essential caregivers in those homes, and hospital workers.
Paramedics in Simcoe Muskoka help administer the vaccine, and on occasion, may receive one themselves if there are leftover doses.
Cory Schepers said it is important to prioritize people in long-term care homes and hospital workers who come face to face with the virus but added that paramedics are often overlooked as frontline workers.
"We are dealing with COVID patients regularly," he said. "And we're still not being seen as frontline workers, which is really aggravating and frustrating for paramedics."
Andrew Robert, director and chief of Simcoe County Paramedic Services, said the vaccine is essential not only for the paramedics themselves but also for the patients.
"The same paramedic one day can be in Roberta Place, and two hours later be in the middle of a hospital ward picking a patient up, and the next day be in a retirement home," he said. "They're looking for that support to not only safeguard themselves and their families but also their patients and their community."
Both Robert and Schepers said paramedics wear full PPE when dealing with patients, but it is not flawless. "People [are] rushing up to them before they can even get their PPE on," said Robert.
There have been three cases of COVID-19 among Simcoe County EMS. "The fact that we've had three is a testament to the professionalism, capacity and skills of the paramedics who know how to manage their safety while they manage their patients," said Robert. "That being said, when we have three workplace infections, it's scary for people."
The Ontario government has confirmed that paramedics are in phase one of the provincial vaccine rollout. Still, Schepers said he and his colleagues are frustrated with the lack of information or timeline.
"It's bringing some paramedics to their breaking point, to be honest."
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit said it couldn't provide a date for when paramedics can expect the vaccine because it doesn't have enough information about its short-term vaccine supply.
"At this point, we are only getting very limited supply at a time, to be able to give our second doses," medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner said in a media briefing on Tuesday.
Gardner went on to say the next priority group is Simcoe County's First Nations communities, then paramedics and other first responders.
But Schepers said there is added frustration because other health units are inoculating paramedics.
Toronto Public Health began administering the vaccine to paramedics in early January. Peel Region has also started, and York Region said nearly 70 per cent of its paramedics had received the first dose of the vaccine.
"We are also going down to Toronto, and daily," said Schepers. "We are bringing patients here because the hospitals are on overload. So we are assisting with those transfers from the GTA to RVH and other hospitals as well. So it's not that we're not being exposed, because we are, just as much as people in the GTA, but we're being excluded because of the health unit we're in."
While Toronto, Peel and York were high priority areas in the province's vaccine rollout plan, Grey Bruce Public Health has confirmed to CTV News that it plans to start giving paramedics their vaccine starting next week.
As of Wednesday, Grey Bruce's COVID-19 case count is 669 cases, while Simcoe Muskoka's is just over 5,800.
CTV News has reached out to both the Ministry of Health and the Simcoe Muskoka health unit to clarify why some health units can provide vaccines to paramedics while other health units cannot.
CTV has yet to get a response from the province, and the health unit declined an interview, but Robert said the County of Simcoe is advocating for local paramedics to make sure they are recognized as frontline workers, adding he has had discussions with the health unit about it.
"Dr. Gardner, the medical officer of health, has indicated that he understands and agrees with that and says paramedics are a priority."
Robert said he's looking forward to eventually calling his staff and telling them to roll up their sleeves.
"They're going into patients' homes that they know are sick, that they know are COVID positive. They're dealing with them face to face for periods of time in the back of an ambulance. I've got nothing but respect and admiration for their work. And I hope we can deliver on a vaccine for them."
Until then, Simcoe County paramedics will have to wait.
