Hamilton's ambulance crisis surfaces at Queens Park after senior's death

Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath raised the issue of Hamilton's ambulance crisis during question period at Queen's Park Thursday.

Horwath's comments were spurred on by a CBC News story that showed Catherine Terry, 71, died of a heart attack during a code zero alert in the city on July 10. A code zero is when "one or less" ambulances across the service's entire fleet are available for a call.

Ambulance shortages have been happening in the city more frequently, leaving Hamiltonians in medical distress at risk of having no one available to help them when they need it most.

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Premier Kathleen Wynne has written to the Terry family, saying the provincial government is aware of the problem and is taking the matter "very seriously."

Horwath, however, disagrees.

"The bottom line is that things shouldn't be this way in Ontario," she told CBC News. "People like Mrs. Terry are the ones who pay the price. Her family ends up being the public face of a tragedy that shouldn't be happening."

The city says hospital offloading times are directly influencing the problem.

The province recommends 90 per cent of patients be offloaded from an ambulance within 30 minutes of reaching a hospital, says the Hamilton Paramedic Service's annual report for 2016. The Ontario average last December was 46 minutes.

In Hamilton, it took a lot longer. In December 2016, it took 107 minutes for patients to be offloaded at Hamilton General, 112 minutes at Juravinski and 91 minutes at St. Joe's.

The city says every code zero event this year is associated with a day where the paramedic service had 10 or more offload delays longer than two hours.

"Frozen hospital budgets have meant that this process is taking longer and longer. Hamilton paramedics and city staff attribute our code zero incidents largely to these increased hospital waits," Horwath said during question period.

"The Ontario Hospital Association itself has said that without action, this crisis will only get worse."

Health minister Dr. Eric Hoskins responded, saying the Liberals are working across the system to improve things for patients.

"We're investing in our ERs, Mr. Speaker, for what's known as pay for performance where we are directly addressing the offloading challenges that certain hospitals face," Hoskins said during question period.

"We are implementing a new algorithm that is going to divert and be able to predict patients that need the support quickly."

Paige Sutherland, Terry's daughter, told CBC News in a previous interview that offloading delays are a massive part of the problem the city is facing.

"If the paramedics weren't so tied up at [Ontario's]hospitals, my mom would still be here."

adam.carter@cbc.ca