Hiring more paramedics only part of the solution to addressing level zero events, paramedic chief says

Ottawa’s paramedic chief says hiring more paramedics is only part of the solution to the record number of 'level zero' events in the city of Ottawa.

A level zero event is when there are no ambulances available to respond to emergency calls.

In 2022, there were 1,819 level zero events totalling 74,216 minutes, which is the equivalent to about seven weeks of time.

Paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier says, "Our ability to get those most serious calls last year was impacted by our level zeros and COVID, and we have a lot of work to do."

Poirier says 2022 was a difficult year, and points largely to the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"COVID was an incredible burden on everyone, not just on the community but also on paramedics, on our ability to provide care in the community," Poirier said.

"What was unique to last year was not just COVID, but when it happened, how it happened and the impact."

He says early in the year saw the biggest impact.

"January, February, and March are often for our service lower volume, but because of Omicron it was higher volume. It wasn’t just the number of patients in the community (requiring an ambulance), it was the effect of Omicron on our staff, so our staffing numbers were incredibly low. So, all those things put together were a recipe for a horrible year."

However, Poirier says in January 2023, the number of level zero incidents were improving.

"The month of January was not bad; I wouldn’t say it was good. Instead of averaging 6,000 minutes a month of level zero, we were just over 2,400 minutes."

Poirier says another issue is offloading and hospital capacity, "More money and more paramedics aren’t going to solve this issue."

"We are in a health care crisis," Poirier says. "The throughput of patients in the hospital affects our ability to put people into the system. For example, not enough long-term care beds, enough primary care physicians, enough surgical suites available and enough surgical beds available, all of those effect the throughput in the hospital. And whenever any of those are backup, it backups to the emergency department, and backups the paramedic service."

In a statement, The Ottawa Hospital says it is working to improve emergency department delays.

"The Ottawa Hospital continues to face pressures on access to inpatient beds in both Emergency Departments, which impacts ambulance offload times. We are working with Ottawa paramedics and other regional partners to manage the wait time challenges in our Emergency Departments."

The city of Ottawa has budgeted for 14 new paramedics in 2023. Poirier says he is in the process of working on a report to present to a city committee on why more paramedic hires are needed.

"That is my homework," says Poirier. "That is the work I have to do, to defend the argument of what we would need, and why we would need them going forward."

Former Mayor Jim Watson wrote to Premier Doug Ford in August 2022 for funding an additional 42 paramedics to relieve offload delays. Poirier says the premier and health minister are still looking at that request. 

Poirier says his message to people in Ottawa is, "My first message is never not call 911 when it is needed because there will be someone to take care of you."

Poirier points to other ways paramedics are in the community.

"We have paramedics in an SUV and response vehicle, and they have the ability to respond to a call (and provide treatment)."

Poirier also says the service works with the fire department to answer high acuity calls.