Ontario paramedics say unloading delays worsen amid staffing shortages and emergency closures

Ontario paramedic groups say a shortage of health care personnel and recent temporary closures of emergency rooms are exacerbating delays in getting patients to hospitals and ambulances back into the community.

Darryl Wilton, president of the Ontario Paramedics Association, said in a recent interview that ambulance unloading delays, when paramedics wait in an emergency department for a patient to be taken to a hospital, have become 12 times longer only in the last year.

Wilton said the delays have reached a level he has never seen before in his 25 years on the job.

Previously, discharge delays of one to two hours were considered extreme, but now some patients and paramedics wait 10 to 15 hours, he said in a recent interview.

“A patient could be picked up this afternoon and not be discharged until tomorrow morning, and that is no longer unusual,” he said. That means multiple teams of paramedics may be treating the same patient over multiple shifts, she added.

The ever-increasing delays are “having a massive impact on paramedic availability” and the effects are rippling through neighboring communities, Wilton said.

“This is something that, plain and simple, requires beds and staff to fix the problem,” he said.

Neal Roberts, a member and former president of the Ontario Chief Paramedics Association, said staffing shortages in the health sector, combined with recent temporary hospital closures and a slight increase in calls for paramedic care have created “almost like a perfect storm and a bit of a domino (effect).”

Roberts, head of the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, said the closures also force paramedics to take patients to hospitals further afield, taking more time and reducing service in their community.

Just as hospitals are seeing shortages of nurses and doctors, paramedic services have also been reduced due to increased demand and the expansion of their roles during the pandemic, he said.

“We’ve hired more than, I think, 50 employees this year and we could still hire more,” he said. “It’s just that the more we hire, the more we need, and we’re seeing this across health care.”

Some hospitals, including Lakeridge Health’s Bowmanville Hospital and Seaforth Community Hospital in Huron County, have announced closures or reduced hours ahead of the long weekend.

Several Ontario hospitals previously warned that emergency department closures could be a recurring problem this summer as a result of staffing shortages. Rural areas have been hit particularly hard, with communities like Perth, Clinton and Wingham seeing their emergency rooms close for periods of several days.

The discharge delays predate the COVID-19 pandemic, but paramedic groups say the problem has gotten worse during the health crisis.

A spokesman for the health minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government issued a memorandum to emergency services, telling them to consider having teams of paramedics see more than one patient at a time in emergency rooms, something known as “pooling” patients. , so paramedics can get back on duty more quickly. .

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 29, 2022.