More ambulances to ease pressure on paramedics

An increase in the number of emergency calls and long wait times to offload patients at London's emergency rooms mean paramedics are stretched thin, a spokesperson for the Middlesex London emergency services says.

Three additional ambulances with full crews will service the city and county, said Al Hunt, Middlesex-London EMS deputy chief of operations.

The other two have just been approved by MiddlesexCounty council, which shares costs of the service with London and the province.

'A hard time keeping up'

The additional two ambulances will run on a trial basis. Hunt will report back to Middlsex County council in September about how the extra crews have affected response times.

"We're really having a hard time keeping up. Call volume is going up and on top of that we have the offload delay issues with the London Health Sciences Centre. The offload call volume is up 45 per cent since 2014," Hunt said.

"With the offload delays, the call volume increasing, it means fewer ambulances on the road, they're being tied up longer in the emerg departments so we've noticed response times have slowly crept up...Our crews are running ragged across the city."

Our crews are running ragged across the city,-Al Hunt,Middlesex-LondonEMS

It's meant more overtime and some paramedics not getting to take their breaks, he said.

At the end of March, the paramedic service got the go-ahead to fund two additional 12-hour ambulances, at a total cost of just over $500,000.

"We're doing this on a trial basis, until September 30, and we'll report back about what kind of difference these additional two cars have made, whether they are enough or if we need to look at even more," Hunt said.

The additional ambulanceshave two-person crews and run 12-hour shifts, at10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 a.m.

The paramedics just went on a hiring spree, bringing on 27 new paramedics. They might need more, Hunt said.

'Aging tsunami'

Paramedics met with senior leaders at the London Health Sciences Centre to voice their concerns about the offload delays, and learned that a dedicated off-load nurse willstay with patients, freeing up paramedics to leave the ER for other calls.

The increasein calls for ambulances can partly be attributed to an aging population and inadequate care outside of hospitals, Hunt said.

"I think we've allunderestimated what they've called the 'aging tsunami.' The elderly are really using our services a lot. There's a lack of long-term care beds in the City of London and the County of Middlesex, patients are... being discharged to stay at home, and they're having lots of problems at home and don't have the proper resources so they call 911," he said.

"We also have a lot of mental health calls, the opioidissue with overdoses. All in all, call volume is growing. It's not just London, it's all over the place."