Perth County Paramedic Services continues to see an increase in ambulance call volume and is close to doubling the number of calls it had just 10 years ago, its chief says.
Article content
During a mid-year report to Perth County council Thursday, Mike Adair told councilors the paramedic service has experienced a 17 per cent increase in call volume year over year.
The last time there was a decrease in call volume was 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adair noted. The report, which focused on the first six months of 2024, indicated the paramedic service should expect to respond to just under 14,000 calls for service, a sharp increase from 2023, when it saw less than 12,000 calls.
Perth County Paramedic Services is also monitoring the amount of time paramedics spend at hospitals during offload delays beyond 30 minutes. According to the report, paramedics are projected to spend the equivalent of 68 12-hour shifts at Stratford General Hospital in offload delays and the 16 12-hour shifts at other Perth County hospitals.
Article content
While this is slight decrease compared to last year, which saw 78 12-hour shifts delays in Stratford and 15 at other hospitals, the numbers have still increased noticeably since 2021, which boasted 33 shifts delays in Stratford and only four at other area hospitals.
Adair told councilors the Stratford hospital presents a particular challenge since “there’s only so much space to actually physically put (the) patients.”
Adair, though, also pointed to the recent funding announcement by Perth Wellington MPP Mathew Rae for $109,000 to combat these offload delays.
“We’re real excited about that. We had a meeting with the hospital yesterday, and they’re experiencing the same thing that we are in terms of just numbers of individuals going into the emergency department. . . . This may help them and us just work together in order to turn the ambulances around a little bit quicker,” Adair said.
“If we can have that extra staff during peak hours and times of pressure, that is good news for us – that we might be able to work with them and see where that program goes.”
The service also received approval to replace a vehicle that was involved in a collision earlier this year. The damage was so extensive that the vehicle was deemed a total loss. The total cost of a new vehicle, retrofitting and certification is $175,000. The insurance payout was $46,322.10, so the remaining $128,677.90 will come from the fleet’s vehicle reserve budget.
Share this article in your social network