Heat wave could ‘cripple’ emergency services already in crisis, paramedics say
From coast to coast, a number of hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centres have had to temporarily close their doors to patients in recent weeks, due to major staffing shortages.The Edmonton region has been consistently running lean on ambulance services and recently there have been none available to respond with a frequency that has caused alarm among many in the province.
“They’re hanging up on you because they’ve got to get to the next call and they have no paramedics to dispatch to even send to your call. This is what the system in Alberta looks like today,” Parker said.Heat warning issued again for the Toronto area with ‘hot and humid conditions’ expected And in recent weeks, an increase in COVID-19 cases in the province has added further pressure to an already deeply constrained health system, leading to more patients needing emergency care and more health workers getting sick, which takes even more resources away from ERs and health clinics, he said.In Ontario, this has led to a significant spike in off-loading delays — where a lack of emergency department beds prevents incoming ambulance patients from being transferred to hospital staff.
“If it’s not a life-threatening emergency, it could take some time before an ambulance gets there. And we’ve experienced waits of a few hours for some patients doing that,” he said.
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