In honour of Paramedic Services Week in Saskatchewan, Humboldt and District Ambulance hosted an open house on Saturday, May 27. The event welcomed people to the EMS headquarters in Humboldt to find out more about emergency medical response and preventative measures to help with general health and safety. 

 Many of the crew were on hand manning stations and giving demonstrations of life-saving techniques and equipment. Visitors could have their blood pressure and glucose levels checked. Tours of the ambulance and its equipment and functions were also part of the day. 

“It’s the first open house we’ve had in a while, but now we’re back at it,” said Derek Dagenais with the service. “We wanted to get out to the public with EMS week and promote our paramedics and what we do for our patients and the public.” 

Dagenais says that Humboldt is fortunate to have three levels of paramedic service: primary care, intermediate care, and advanced care paramedics. It allows for a wide range of services included emergency care, interfacility transfer, and outreach and education. There are challenges to the work, Dagenais notes, but the rewards are many. 

“It’s a tough job, like many in health care, and our numbers (of responses) are going up steadily, but we’re fortunate in a lot of situations to have three staffed ambulances.” 

There is a need for more paramedics in Saskatchewan and across the country, he states, and that’s part of the reason to draw attention to emergency medical response as a career through events like the open house.  

“There are some great programs through Sask Polytech, and we’re fortunate in Humboldt that they’re running programs here for entry level paramedics. For the first time in the 30 years of our being here, we’re actually looking at hiring people prior to the completion of their primary care paramedic course.” 

Those courses are available through Carlton Trail College.  

Dagenais says that type of recruitment helps with training and identifying local people who have roots in the region and want to remain. Such is the case with numerous staff members who entered the profession in Humboldt and have remained for many years.  

Enjoy the brief tour of the day.