Ambulance offload delays at N.B. hospitals leave village stations empty

New Brunswick paramedics say offload delays at hospitals have been getting worse and are yet another symptom of a health-care system increasingly under strain.

On a recent night outside the Moncton Hospital, as many as 15 units were tied up. Waiting times on June 27 ranged from 52 minutes to nearly 14 hours, according to Ambulance N.B.

What is less visible is how this impacts smaller communities. Crews in towns and villages then may be called up to work in larger centres, leaving stations like the one in Blackville unstaffed. 

"This is a result of everything that is going on in the health-care system," said Chris Hood, executive director for the Paramedic Association of New Brunswick.

Patients can't be abandoned before they are transferred fully into hospital care, he said. 

"At least one of the two paramedics is at the patient's side, actively monitoring them."

Rarely are patients cooped up in the back of the vehicle. It's more common, he said, for patients to spend hours on ambulance stretchers, parked in a hospital hallway or some kind of hospital holding area.

Meanwhile, first responders know the calls keep coming in.

"Just think of the dilemma those two paramedics feel … when they know that [they] might be able to make a difference in that person's life," Hood said.

They're thinking, "I'm sitting here because the system is broken and I'm not able to respond."

They also hear the ripple effect as ambulances have to be dispatched to emergencies that are farther and farther away. 

Hood said a call in Fredericton could be answered by an ambulance from Saint John or Grand Falls. 

Typically, he said, ambulances are taken from smaller communities and redeployed to bigger centres. 

"We can use Blackville, for example. That leaves those communities uncovered because that's not typically where the next call is going to come from."