Southern Health officials continue to work with Manitoba Health on rolling out an initiative that will add more full time paramedic positions in our region. The province announced in April that it would create a total of 9.6 new full-time equivalent (FTE) positions at Boundary Trails Health Centre and in Altona. The program is taking some time to roll out as none of those positions have been filled at either locations.

"We're continuing to work with the province on this and obviously there are some details to work through on that, but as soon those are completed then it's our intent that those positions will be posted," said Scott Noble, Regional Director of Emergency Medical Services for the RHA.

Under the program, Boundary Trails Health Centre will see the addition of 4.85 FTE positions and another 4.85 FTE positions will be added in Altona.

Noble was asked if this move will improve ambulance response times in the Altona region, something that has been an issue for local municipal officials.

"We'll replace what is currently an on-call staff model for night shifts. That current model has people responding from locations outside of the station because they are on-call verses being in the station. So, the expectation would be an improvement in response times."

Noble couldn't say exactly when all the positions will be filled at both locations.

The new hires in our region are part of an overall plan to create 60 new full-time paramedic positions across the Province.