Acute labor shortage in the United States has hit the EMS ambulance service (Emergency Medical Services) on the US (EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES). Health workers reported a sharp reduction in the number of services provided and an increase in the waiting time of medical care, because of this, thousands of Americans were in mortal danger, NBC News writes.
The President of the American Association of Ambulance Sean Bard said that the scale of the lack of labor turned out to be huge. “In a pandemic, we faced a lack of people, it makes the situation in the public health system extremely dangerous,” he said. Companies that are engaged in emergency care is at the moment there are not enough personnel to handle calls and qualified medical personnel. According to the survey of the American AAA company, conducted among 258 organizations in the United States, because of the crisis it became difficult to hire and retain the doctors and ambulance officers. In 2020, almost 30 percent of EMS employees quit less than a year later, 11 percent went through the first three months.
The causes of the lack of personnel in the labor market in the United States have become a huge number of calls, low salaries, stress and burnout due to the high volumes of work, which appeared from American physicians due to the effects of the pandemic. “When you are an EMS worker, you risk your life, contacting infected patients, while you can earn more money, working in a warehouse in Amazon, which is safer. In such conditions, it becomes really difficult to hold people,” said the Chairman of the National Human Resource Committee Association of emergency medical care technicians Robert Lacrice.
At the same time, companies from the scope of emergency were dependent on the remaining workers, the load of which record increased. They pay double overtime work to cover the deficit, but it has already increased the average working week of paramedics for eight hours. “With this almost impossible to cope. I do not think that any company EMS wants to publicly state that your service can be interrupted, but the reality is that due to the crisis with the staff we see delays in assistance throughout the country right Now, “said the head of the Ambulance Tri-Hospital in the city of Port Huron Ken Cammings.
Some medical companies also had to close or unite with others in a deficit. The American Association of Ambulance and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians sent a letter to the US Congress with a requirement to conduct a hearing to eliminate the deficit and allocate additional funds to increase wages.
Parents of young children in the USA were previously threatened by dismissal due to the deficit of educators in preschool institutions. Difficulties predicted both working mothers whose career suffered due to the closure of kindergartens and remote school education.