Southcoast Health eliminates paramedic position from all six locations

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — A spokesperson for Southcoast Health said it has eliminated the paramedic position across all six urgent care locations.

On Monday, the last 10 paramedics working for Southcoast Health were laid off after the organization began a process to gradually remove all paramedics over the last year.

According to Southcoast Health Executive Vice President Renee Clark, the organization removed all paramedics due to state regulations that “limited the scope of practice for paramedics working in urgent care centers.”

In a full statement, Clark said:

“Unfortunately, due to state regulations that limited the scope of practice for paramedics working in urgent care centers, we had to make the difficult decision to transition away from utilizing these providers at Southcoast Health Urgent Care. To best support them, and our urgent care teams, we began this transition process over one year ago with the goal to respectfully allow our paramedics to adjust to the new role limitations and begin looking for other opportunities that would better fit their skills and expertise.

Today, we sadly had to let go of the remaining ten paramedics employed across our six urgent care locations and we will do everything we can to support them through the transition to new employment, whether internally or externally. We thank them for their exceptional dedication to caring for our community alongside the outstanding teams across our not-for-profit healthcare system.

This decision, while incredibly difficult, ultimately helps ensure more efficient patient care at our urgent care locations, which play an essential role in the statewide capacity challenges we are experiencing amid a severe respiratory illness season. I would like to thank all our urgent care teams for the unwavering commitment to excellence they have demonstrated while caring for our community across the South Coast region.”