Emergency declared over ambulances in Windsor-Essex

Essex County has declared an emergency over the lack of ambulance availability in the region it says is tied to delays in admitting patients at hospitals.

County warden Gary McNamara, who issued the declaration Monday morning, is calling it a crisis.

"The current situation is unsustainable and it is putting the lives of Windsor and Essex County residents at risk," McNamara said at a press conference at the EMS base in Tecumseh.

McNamara said declaring the emergency will provide flexibility in responding to the matter and will highlight the concern to the province.

The announcement comes following a Code Black that was in effect for three hours last Wednesday, meaning there were no ambulances available to respond to calls.

James Jovanovic, president of the paramedics' union, CUPE Local 2974, told CBC that ambulances from Wallaceburg were being called in to respond to calls in Windsor.

Last month there were 116 minutes where a Code Black was in effect and 491 minutes so far in October.

"In all my years of working in EMS, and that counts two years dealing with COVID, I've never seen our local health-care system in such a state of crisis," said EMS Chief Bruce Krauter.

In the last two years there's been an increase in situations where ambulances are left idling for hours outside emergency rooms while patients await admission, according to the county.

Krauter stressed that the hospitals aren't to blame.

Windsor Regional Hospital says that high patient volumes are contributing to the off-loading delays.

"These challenges continue to strain our staff despite having close to 60 more acute care beds today than WRH had prior to COVID-19, as well as some 400 additional front-line clinical staff," the hospital said in a media release Monday.

As of Monday, the Ouellette campus is at 106 per cent capacity for medical/surgical patients, while the Metropolitan Campus is at 107 per cent.

Between the two sites, there are 44 emergency patients waiting for a bed.

The hospital says that patients in critical or life-threatening situations will be seen immediately but non-emergencies will face long wait times. Those patients are asked to seek care through their primary care provider, a local clinic or through Health Connect Ontario at 811.

Officials met with the province

On Wednesday during the Code Black, all 26 ambulances were tied up outside hospitals, according to the county.

At that time, other ambulance services were experiencing "intense pressures," and at one point there were between zero and seven ambulances available across much of Southwestern Ontario, from London west.

Essex County officials recently met with the provincial Ministry of Health on the issue, which is being felt across the province. 

They put forward several suggestions to tackle the offload delays, including allowing less serious patients to sit in the waiting room so ambulances can leave the hospital.

They also want to see a doctor, nurse or some other medical professional field calls to determine whether non-emergency patients need to go to hospital and refer them to alternative care.

Paramedics would also like the ability to treat and release patients on scene.

"Right now, under the Ambulance Act, we must transfer people to the emergency department," Krauter explained. "We want the leeway."

Krauter said that more access to primary care after hours would lead to less pressure on hospitals.