After soaring to record highs in 2022, code zero events reported by Hamilton paramedics (HPS) so far this year has dropped significantly year over year.
The city’s chief paramedic says only 14 have been reported so far in the first five months of 2023, 64 less than the 78 reported at the same time last year.
HPS’ Michael Sanderson told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton the 78 per cent decrease can be correlated to funding help from the Ministry of Health that’s placed dedicated offload nursing staff at hospitals.
Additionally, funding from city hall for 35 more full-time paramedics and seven more ambulances during daily peak volume periods has improved response capacity and staff workload management.
“I’ve got 20 staff in training right now,” Sanderson said. “We are going to be repeating that at the end of the month with another 20 coming in, so we’re starting to get a handle on the actual number of paramedics that we require.”
Despite the help, Sanderson says call volumes continue to be high with HPS responding to 270 calls on the holiday Monday which rivals the 269 average per day the service was juggling in all of 2022.
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Last year, HPS responded to just over 98,000 calls for service in 2022, up eight per cent year over year.
Paramedics also spent some 38,000 hours in hallways waiting to drop off patients at packed emergency rooms (ERs) across the city, passing a record of 32,000 hours set for all of 2021.
Before 2022 was even over, code zero events in Hamilton were a whopping 334 at the end of October, up 244 per cent compared to the 97 for all of 2021.
It also marked a six-year high beating out the 119 code zeroes dealt with in 2017.
To keep up with service demand, city council bumped up its investment in HPS by 23 per cent year over, or $6.7 million, for 2023.
Broadening paramedics’ scope of practice, enhancing IT for quicker access to patient records, and a bicycle team for off-road care are other enhancements the province and city combined to bring to the table.
Sanderson says the theme for the 2023 edition of Paramedic Services Week, May 21-27, is addressing another evolving reality – diversity – which is impacting paramedics and their patients across the province.
“When we look at the patients that we serve … ethnicity, religion, cultures, gender, LGBTQ2S community, we have to make sure that we’re serving them and that we understand their needs very well,” Sanderson explained.
That includes diversity in a workforce that is hoping to match changing demographics across Canada.
“For example, I know when I started in the job it was typically a white male profession. It’s not that anymore,” Sanderson revealed.
“About 42 per cent of our workforce is female, and we really celebrate that as are moving forward.”
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