The chief of Essex-Windsor EMS has met with provincial representatives as an emergency declaration continues.
"Warden Gary McNamara and I met Wednesday with Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones and local MPPs Andrew Dowie [Windsor-Tecumseh] and Anthony Leardi [Essex]," said Chief Bruce Krauter in an email received by WindsorNewsToday.ca. "We had frank and fruitful discussions, and we were all dedicated to pursuing long-term strategies to address these issues collaboratively involving all regional partners."
The declaration was made earlier this week after the regional EMS reported instances last week where there were no ambulances available due to long offloading times at Windsor-Essex hospitals. In one instance, on October 12, there were 26 ambulances with staff on duty and all 26 were experiencing offload delays outside hospitals for three hours.
The offloading delays have been blamed on hospital capacity issues. Windsor Regional Hospital, for example, reported that on Monday morning, 44 emergency patients had been admitted but were waiting for acute-care beds to open up.
Krauter also clarified the Code Black label, when no active paramedic teams are available to respond to calls due to offloading delays at hospitals.
"Instances of Code Black are calculated in minutes and totalled 491 minutes during the first two weeks of October compared to 116 minutes in all of September, 77 minutes in August and 31 minutes in July," wrote Krauter.
Krauter added that a community control group, made up of regional healthcare officials and provincial representatives, has been in place and is actively seeking long and short-term solutions to the problem.
If you need medical assistance but are not experiencing a critical or life-threatening situation, call your family physician first. If your physician is not available, visit a nearby urgent care or walk-in clinic, or call Health Connect Ontario at 811 to speak with a registered nurse. If you're experiencing a situation where your life is immediately threatened, call 9-1-1.
---with files from Maureen Revait
