By Frances Barrick
Waterloo Region Record
LONDON — It was a day of love for many, but Valentine’s Day was the worst day for ambulance availability in Waterloo Region.
“Valentine’s Day was not very loving to us,” said John Prno, the region’s emergency services director.
“There was a time period of four hours that day when we had no local ambulances to do calls,” said Prno, shortly after he presented regional councillors with a report on the troubled ambulance service.
“It was our worst day ever.”
Prno said he is not aware of any medical outcomes as a result of the problem.
The issue stems from a shortage of hospital beds resulting in more ambulances sitting idly at emergency departments as paramedics find themselves stuck at the region’s three hospitals for hours waiting to hand over patients to hospital staff.
On Feb. 14, ambulances were idle for 73 hours, the equivalent of three ambulances sitting for an entire day doing nothing, Prno said in his presentation to regional councillors.
There were no local ambulances available to do calls from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and up to five out-of-town ambulances had to respond to local calls that day, he said. Response times were as high as 30 minutes.
The whole month of February was bad news.
There were 522 off-load delays, totalling 855 hours, the equivalent of 36 ambulances sitting for 24 hours.
In one case, paramedics had to wait eight hours before handing over their patient to hospital staff.
And there were 32 instances last month where no local ambulances were available to take calls.
The situation has improved so far this month, said Prno, calling it the most difficult problem he has faced in his 35 years in the field.
“It is really difficult. You can go from being in complete control of the situation to one hour later not having any ambulances,” he said. “It is definitely a moving target.”
Prno said he has been working with hospital administrators, other health-care providers and provincial officials to try and resolve this hospital off-load delay problem, “but there is not an easy solution.”
He said some paramedics spend almost their entire 12-hour shift with their patient on a stretcher as they wait for a nurse or doctor who is busy looking after other patients in the crowded emergency departments.
“It is basically taking their (hospitals’) problem and making it our problem,” Prno said.
Several councillors expressed frustration and concern.
“This is a very serious issue,” said Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran, a former nurse.
Coun. Jane Mitchell of Waterloo asked Prno what regional council could do to help.
Dr. Liana Nolan, the region’s medical officer of health, told councillors that discussions are continuing between regional staff, the province and hospital administrators to come up with a united solution.
“We don’t want to do this in isolation. We need to work with the hospitals,” Nolan said.
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