In an effort to deal with ongoing ambulance shortages that lead to code reds and yellows in Waterloo Region, the province is sending money to beef up staffing in emergency rooms at area hospitals.
The region said the Ministry of Health is providing $743,706 to the three local hospitals through its Dedicated Offload Nurses Program.
“Reduced offload times ensures valuable paramedic resources are responding to the community’s needs and assures offloaded patients are safely monitored, while being assessed and triaged,” stated Rita Sharratt, the director of emergency and mental health programs at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
The funds, which will be split between Cambridge Memorial Hospital, Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital, are intended to allow for extra staff so that the transfer times that ambulances experience while offloading patients decrease.
The money will cover staffing for 12 hours a day, and for 24 hours a day in the month of March.
Code Yellows occur when there are just a few ambulances available to answer calls, while Code Reds occur when there are no ambulances available to respond to calls.
In Waterloo Region, there were 87 Code Reds over the first nine months of 2022, a major jump from 21 over the same timeframe a year earlier, according to a recent report prepared by Paramedic Services of Waterloo Region.
“Paramedic Services is currently losing the equivalent of three, 12-hour ambulance shifts per day, to offload delay; more than negating the two additional 12-hour ambulance shifts added by Council in July 2022,” the report said.
Regional council approved its 2023 budget last week, which included an extra $63 million for paramedic services, which will allow for four new ambulances and 20 new paramedics.