Offload delays, code reds continue to concern our local chief of paramedic services

By James Sebastian-Scott

Offload delays and code reds are something that we are growing used to seeing within our paramedic services around Waterloo Region and in neighbouring municipalities, such as Guelph-Wellington. 

The most recent example came from the month of July, where Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service were under a code red 11 times in the month. 

A code red happens when there are no ambulances to respond to calls and they could last anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. 

This has our region's chief of paramedic services concerned. 

Stephen Van Valkenburg said in an interview with CityNews 570 that it's a growing concern to continue to see this pattern of delays and code reds. 

“It's always concerning when I see the offload delay hours and time that our crews spend,” he said.

“They work tirelessly to serve our community and it's been a really tough go over the last two and a half years with COVID as well. We're back up to beyond pre-COVID levels with our call volume. Our call volume is going up on a daily basis. I get concerned about the crews.They want to have a life outside of work as well.” 

Van Valkenburg said that just like all municipalities in our province, our region is also dealing with its own challenges when it comes to these delays. 

“We're struggling as well,” he said. 

“We do have code reds intermittently. It depends on the call volume and the staffing and how many vehicles are tied up at the emergency department in offload delay. It hasn't been too terrible in the last few weeks.”

If there are code reds in neighbouring municipalities, other paramedic services will be called in to help with the call volume in order to attend to the needs of the community.

“We're dispatched through the Ontario Ministry of Health and the system is designed that if Guelph is short of vehicles, we can be dispatched to their area to respond to those calls and vice-versa,” he said.

“If we didn't have any vehicles we would expect the same response from Guelph, Brantford or Woodstock. That is the way the system is designed.”

Van Valkenburg said that because the pandemic is still ongoing, that is one reason why there are still code reds being called around the province.

“Like all other health care services in the province, we're strained right now. People seem to forget that we're not really out of COVID yet and we still have staff off with COVID. We have people on vacations, people still getting sick. Everybody has staffing issues whether it's in hospitals or paramedic services, so it's a challenge right now for health care to make sure we can meet the demands that the public puts on us.” 

Van Valkenburg points to the recent announcements from the Ford government about the new 9-1-1 models of care which should help some of the challenges they are facing. 

“We're working on those particular programs where we treat and release, treat and refer or treat and transport. We've had a program over the last nine years where when someone comes into the emergency department with an ambulance if they can sit in the waiting room they will go there instead of sitting in a stretcher in the ED. It's a great start for that. Our community paramedic program is helping out in the public as well by serving folks who are waiting for long-term care placements who may not have to come to the hospital for certain treatments.”

Van Valkenburg hopes that there will be a time where paramedic services in the province won't have to continuously deal with code reds and offload delays. 

“I sit on the board of the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs and I co-chaired a committee on offload delays. We put a position paper out to the government to say what they could do to assist us in trying to solve the offload problem. I'm quite confident that the association will take to task to continue to put pressure on the government to come to the table and have these discussions. I'm quite confident we will get there, it's just going to take some time and we will have to ride through this until we get to the end of it.”

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