Primary Care Paramedics in Canada
 

Hi all, I have a question about how Primary Care Paramedics are employed and paid in Canada. From what I can see this grade of practitioner is only paid on an on-call basis, from one account only $2 an hour and then a fixed rate for the duration of a call. Surely it would be impossible to make a decent living this way without progressing to Advanced Care Paramedicine? Are there any provinces/health services in Canada as a whole that employ PCPs on a permanent (not on-call) basis? I'm in the process of making the move over from the UK but cannot see for the life of me why anyone would see PCP as a viable career option.

Re: Primary Care Paramedics in Canada
 

Morning,
PCPs are hired on call, part time, and full time. It all depends on what province you are looking at.
You are talking about the on call $2/hr so I am assuming you are looking at BC.
Initially you get hired at a small station as an on call PCP and yes you get paid $2/hr. Each separate call you get a 4 hour minimum and then an hourly rate after that.
You build union seniority and eventually you can bid on a full time post usually in the Vancouver post. I hear it can be as little as 3-4 years at the moment sometimes as low as 2 years depends on retirement cycles and any coverage increases. While an on call PCP you can bid to transfer to busier stations to get more call outs and actually make a wage but they do not guarantee any salary or benefits until you have several years of "part time" or go full time.
The BCEHS collective agreement and pay grids can be found at this website.

Collective Agreements

AB hires directly to full time search "AHS PCP employment" and also "Alberta PCP employment" and it should come up with quite a few. Will give a salary range as well.

Sask, Man, NB all hire as part time and full time depends on timing and where. The more popular the area for living the more likely starting part time then moving to full time.
Ontario hires both full time and part time but the competition is massive. OPA has a list of vacancies on their website.
NS is currently hiring full time PCPs as do most of their hospitals. They use PCPs on triage and in the hospitals as clinical support staff.

If you are looking at moving over as a PCP you can also work industrial and that's an option as well. Lots in BC work industrial while working BCEHS and building union seniority. You can actually make a wage then transfer over to full time when your number comes up.
A search for "PCP industrial employment" will come up with some. Mostly in BC/AB/Sask.

Remember you need registration in the individual province you want to work in. Industrial medics tend to have multiple registrations.
There is a website International Paramedics – Helping paramedics from around the world move to Canada for information. Mostly aimed at ACPs but there might be info there for you.

Hope that helps and good luck with the move. Loads of UK medics have done it.

UKCanuck