A report heading to the County of Wellington's social services committee reveals some troubling numbers when it comes to local ambulance delays and Code Reds.
It includes a spike in Code Red declarations – that's when there are no ambulances available to respond to emergency calls – and thousands of hours spent by paramedics waiting to bring a patient into hospital.
On over 6,100 occasions, the report states paramedics with Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services (GWPS) have had to stay in a hospital emergency department longer than 30 minutes (meeting the threshold of an offload delay) in 2022.
Over 5,100 of those times have been at Guelph General Hospital, while about 600 happened at Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus.
On five occasions a paramedic had to care for a patient while waiting to be admitted to hospital for more than 12 hours, and "multiple occasions" where at least a dozen ambulances were in an offload delay at the same time at GGH.
For reference, 15 ambulances are staffed during the peak times of the day for GWPS.
"Offload delays are a concern faced by virtually all paramedic services in Ontario as hospitals report that they are inundated with admitted patients and high patient volumes," the report stated.
"The Guelph General hospital has reported that the issue is related to the high number of patients admitted to the hospital waiting for long-term care beds, causing an inability to admit patients from the emergency department and patients needing care staying in the department longer, causing a backlog."
Overall, over 9,400 hours of paramedic time has been spent in an offload delay, "with most of those delays involving two paramedics."
Meantime, there have been 50 Code Reds for Guelph Wellington ambulances this year (up to the end of October), a spike from the four declarations in 2021 and none in 2020.
The report said all of the Code Reds this year happened while ambulances were in an offload delay, and the declarations ranged between less than two minutes to more than two hours.
"When no Guelph Wellington ambulances are available to respond, the closest available ambulance in other communities is dispatched to a call in our area," the report said. "Similarly, Guelph Wellington ambulances have been required to respond into Waterloo, Hamilton and Halton Region when their resources are depleted."
Several initiatives are being worked on to address the issue, including the application for a provincial funding that would allow Guelph General Hospital to hire staff "specifically to care for patients that would otherwise be in offload delay."
Other things already done include a process called Fit2Sit, where a patient that can wait independently can be brought into GGH's emergency room rather than sit in the care of a paramedic. Discussions have begun to do something similar at Groves.
There's also been a recent meeting with long-term care and homeless shelters so less patients are transferred over from those sites.
