Ambulance delays becoming ‘insane’
Paramedics waited more than 1,000 hours last week at emergency departments
As paramedics increasingly wait for hours while delivering patients to local emergency departments, Niagara Emergency Medical Services is calling for help to resolve the situation.
“This past weekend we experienced an overwhelming number of off-load delays and also experienced an increase in call volume,” said Deputy Chief Karen Lutz. “The two together really created a lot of pressure.”
Lutz said paramedics accumulatively spent more than 1,000 hours on off-load delay last week.
“That is insane,” she said. “When we’re all tied up at the hospital, of course, that’s going to impact folks who are waiting for ambulances or trying to get responses out to the community. It affects our paramedics waiting at the hospital, it affects the nursing staff at the hospital trying to address the surges.” With a busy summer to come, Lutz expects the situation will get worse.
She said EMS has increased the number of ambulances and paramedics on each shift for the next 90 days, while postponing summer training programs and declining requests for paramedics at external events.
That’s in addition to innovations implemented during the past few years to reduce the volume of calls for paramedics.
“We’re trying to do the best we can,” Lutz said.
However, she said, the situation needs to be addressed by the hospital system and the provincial government.
Lutz said reduced staffing levels at hospitals related to the pandemic have aggravated the situation for paramedics.
She said delayed treatments due to the pandemic may be part of the problem, as well.
“Right now, the hospital system is a one-way valve. Folks can be discharged into the community and
‘‘ It affects our paramedics waiting at the hospital, it affects the nursing staff at the hospital.
KAREN LUTZ DEPUTY CHIEF
we’re seeing two years of people with delayed health care — not accessing primary care physicians, waiting for surgeries … and there’s not enough longterm care beds so folks are waiting in hospital to go into longterm care. There are system issues that can’t be fixed overnight that we need some measures from the government to help with, and some urgency to address the situation.”
Niagara Health chief nursing executive Heather Paterson said the hospital system’s emergency department is the busiest among hospitals in the Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand, Burlington and Brant region and the fourth busiest in Ontario, and patients in the most critical condition are seen first regardless of whether they arrive on their own or by ambulance.
She attributed the issues to factors outside the hospital, such as a shortage of about 95 family physicians forcing people to visit the emergency department for primary care, as well as a shortage of long-termcare beds.
“On any given day, we have up to 100 patients waiting in hospital beds for services to become available in the community, including home care and longterm-care settings. The longterm care in our region has lost more than 400 beds as a result of new pandemic protocols. This means patients remain on stretchers in the EDs, where they are cared for by our staff and physicians while they await beds to become available,” Paterson said. “This, in turn, leads to longer wait times for our paramedic colleagues to transfer their patients to the hospital ED team.”
She said several initiatives have been introduced to reduce wait times.
“We recognize more needs to be done, and we will continue to actively seek solutions to improve care for our patients and families,” Paterson said.
Lutz said the patients paramedics assist are often sicker than they might have been prior to the pandemic, while mental health and overdose call volumes remain high.
She said calls related to acts of violence are increasing as well.
“It’s not a good situation in Niagara right now, but we’re trying our best to make sure we have resources available to respond to the community.”