Code Critical: Paramedics sound alarm over ambulance availability

Local paramedics are sounding the alarm over ambulance availability across Middlesex London.

It came to a head on Tuesday night, when 16 ambulances were bunched up at the London Health Sciences Centre Emergency department, unable to respond to emergency calls, according to the union representing paramedics.

OPSEU Local 147 Vice President Abed Al-Nasser Kaddoura tells CTV News this type of scenario is now an every day occurrence.

"At first it was quite egregious and now it’s just day to day," he said. "That’s all we’re hearing at the beginning of our shift for our meet-ups. 'The hospitals are delayed, you’re going to be delayed, service is slow, get out there'."

And, all too often, reinforcements are being brought in, according to OPSEU Local 147 President, Jason Schinbein.

"How often we’re hearing ambulances coming from places like Stratford, St. Thomas, Oxford County, to answer calls in London. And they’re coming at their highest priority, so lights and sirens to answer a call here in downtown London, which we haven’t seen that ever."

The revelations follow an Ontario Health document leak by the Ontario liberals. The document outlined a host of pressures on the provincial health system, including the fact that nine out of every ten emergency room patients waits more than 33 hours for an inpatient bed. That’s a 54 per cent increase from one year earlier.

It was just last week that London Health Sciences Centre said emergency room wait times reached 18 hours for all but the most serious of medical conditions. This is in part due to ambulance off-load delays, according to Schinbein.

"Even our high priority calls, something like a chest pain or shortness of breath, significant MVC where there’s no ambulance to send. There is one coming but it’s coming from 30, 40 minutes away."

According to Middlesex London Paramedic Services not every call requires an ambulance, and not every patient needs to go to a hospital. The service is proposing a pilot project that officials believe could take enormous pressure off the system.

Neal Roberts, Chief of Middlesex-London Emergency Medical Services Authority, explains that the pilot would involve assuming control of the land ambulance communications centre.

"It may be a critical care ambulance, it may be a community paramedic, maybe it’s a mental health crisis team, maybe it’s having a better triage of the patient in the dispatch centre," he said. "But really it’s making sure the patient’s needs at that time are matched with the best medical response, as required."

The pilot has already been endorsed by Middlesex County Council. It’s now awaiting approval from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.