Multiple paramedic services from across the GTA are stationing ambulances outside Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children as Ontario experiences a surge in pediatric patient transfers to cope with overwhelming demand.
Global News has learned paramedics from Durham, Peel, Halton and York regions have set aside vehicles and staff to offer SickKids a rotation of dedicated patient transfer services amid high patient volumes.
In a statement to Global News, SickKids said the arrangement began on Dec. 4, giving the hospital access to a designated EMS vehicle between noon and 8 p.m. every day “to support timely transfers to other hospitals.”
“Timely transfers of these patients help SickKids to maintain or increase capacity for those that do need the type of specialized paediatric care that is only available at SickKids or other children’s hospitals,” the hospital said in a statement.
SickKids said patients who are being moved are children who no longer require a “tertiary level of care” and can be looked after at a community hospital “that would often be closer to home.”
Peel Regional Paramedic Services confirmed it has re-directed at least one ambulance to wait outside the hospital on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. Paramedics from Halton, York and Durham stand guard on other days of the week.
“Since Dec. 5, Peel paramedics have transferred 7 patients,” the region said in a statement.
A paramedic working in the GTA, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told Global News the protocols are similar to hospital transfers at the height of COVID-19 when adult patients were being transferred to other hospitals to create space in intensive care units.
“But it was never kids,” they said. “That was adults ICU beds that we were shuttling people around all over the place, but I have never experienced anything like this with our pediatric population.”
The paramedic, with nearly two decades of experience, said emergency crews that are being re-routed to SickKids are instructed to drive to the hospital immediately after beginning their shift and will be “given a list of kids that are being transported anywhere in the province.”
“You find the patient, transfer them to the hospital they’re going to and come right back to SickKids. You pick up the next one, transfer them where they’re going and come back to SickKids,” the paramedic said.
Another Toronto-area paramedic, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the setup was not common.
“It’s not normal — we did it for adult patients during COVID peak but had multiple trucks each day,” they said.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said on Monday that while “it’s not ideal” to have a child moved far away from home, it’s a necessary solution to accessing care.
But those transfers illustrate just how stretched health care is, one doctor says.
Dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency room physician, said the hospital always had the capacity to offer patients a continuity of care even after being downgraded.
“I think it just shows you the extent of the crisis,” Pirzada said. “They’ve always had patient transports to take critical care patients, but expanding it means that the demand is a lot higher.”
While the hospital did not say how long the program is expected to last, infectious diseases specialists at other children’s hospitals project the surge in influenza cases will last until mid-January.