Hamilton city council has given support to adding another ambulance to this year’s operating budget, at a net cost of about $540,000.
The funding request includes hiring 10 full-time paramedics.
Emergency services (EMS) Chief Michael Sanderson says there were 97 “Code Zero” incidents last year, times when one or zero ambulances were available to respond to an emergency, as offload delays at hospitals remain a serious issue.
“We lost 32,000 staff hours at hospital waiting for offload delays,” says Sanderson. “The challenge is it’s not predictable, it’s not something we control.”
Sanderson also told city councillors, during a budget meeting on Thursday, that Hamilton paramedics were called to 75,815 events last year, an increase of 12 per cent compared with 2020.
It’s not a trend that he sees ending, since 44 per cent of last year’s ambulance calls involved seniors.
“The population above the age of 65 is growing at a higher rate than many of the other population bands,” notes Sanderson.
He says 87 per cent of last year’s calls were medical in nature, with trauma-related calls accounting for the other 13 per cent.
Councillors continue to discuss Hamilton’s 2022 operating budget, which includes pressures of about $47 million.
In its current form, balancing the budget would require a residential tax increase of 3.6 per cent.