Recruiting paramedics is proving to be a challenge for Essex-Windsor EMS.
The service is short of five advanced care paramedics due to retirements, promotions and long-term absences.
Chief Bruce Krauter says recruitment has been ongoing for some time and hopes to fill the vacant positions in the next six to eight months.
"We have recruited province-wide to get people to come back and it's difficult to find the right people to fill the positions," says Krauter.
Proximity to the American border doesn't really help much in recruiting new paramedics.
"We could recruit stateside, but the problem is they have to go through the provincial exam and certification," says Krauter. "They don't meet the same requirements, so they may have to take extra schooling as well."
In the meantime, primary care paramedics are filling the void left by the vacancies.
Krauter says recruiting paramedics isn't a challenge only seen in Windsor-Essex.
"Toronto obviously, I don't think they have an issue, or Ottawa, but some of the outlying stations do have that struggle," says Krauter.
Essex-Windsor EMS reports making over 47,000 patient contacts in 2015 — transporting nearly 39,000 patients to hospitals, clinics or their homes.
