The worsening delays are 'having a massive impact on paramedic availability.'
Darryl Wilton, president of the Ontario Paramedic Association, said in a recent interview ambulance offload delays -- when paramedics wait in an emergency department for a patient to be transferred to the care of a hospital -- have gotten 12 times longer in the last year alone.
"A patient could be picked up this afternoon and not be offloaded until sometime tomorrow morning, and that's not unusual anymore," he said. That means multiple paramedic crews may be caring for the same patient over several shifts, he added. Roberts, chief of the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, said the closures also force paramedics to take patients to hospitals further away, which takes more time and reduces service in their community.
"We've hired upwards of, I think, 50-odd staff this year and we still could hire more," he said. "It's just the more we hire, the more we need -- and we're just seeing this across all health care."
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