Paramedic service has reached `level zero' 400 times this year

Need to call in crews from outside Ottawa puts strain on neighbouring communities

Plans are in the works to increase beds and offload staff in emergency departments.

There have been 400 times this year that the Ottawa Paramedic Service hasn't had a single ambulance and paramedic transport crew available, according to statistics provided by the city.

Paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier provided the information Friday in the aftermath of a committee meeting at which hospital executives were on the hot seats explaining the reasons for patient offload delays at emergency departments.

The paramedic service calls it “level zero” when there are no paramedic crews available to respond to 911 calls.

The 400 times that Ottawa has seen level zero this year has resulted in about 183 hours when no city paramedic crew was available.

The level-zero statistics in 2019 were also alarming. There were 558 level-zero events resulting in about 233 hours with no city paramedics available last year.

When there are no city paramedics available, the work calls fall to paramedic teams based outside of Ottawa in the neighbouring counties. The domino effect has put strain on those outside municipalities since paramedics are required away from their home jurisdictions.

On Oct. 15, Ottawa council's community and protective services committee heard from CEOs of The Ottawa Hospital, Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton Hospital that the high-demand for beds inside their facilities have led to long wait times for staff to accept patients from paramedics.

They cited an increase in “alternate level of care” patients, who don't require hospital-level, but don't have other options.

As a result, paramedics are waiting at hospitals with their patients, sometimes for several hours, until the patients can be transferred.

The delays are hurting response times for the paramedic service.

Last year, Ottawa paramedics responded to life-threatening emergencies within eight minutes, 75.1 per cent of the time. The council-approved standard is for the eight-minute responses to happen 75 per cent of the time for those critical calls.

Plans are in the works to increase beds and offload staff in emergency departments. The hospitals are also working with the paramedic service to distribute ambulances to emergency departments so one hospital isn't overloaded.