'We keep getting lucky': Orleans explosion highlights need for 'level 0' solution, paramedic association head says
CTV
The head of the Ottawa Paramedic Association says the issue of 'level zero', when there are no ambulances available to respond to 9-1-1 calls, is so serious that Ottawa was 'lucky' Monday's explosion wasn't worse.
The head of the Ottawa Paramedic Association says the issue of "level zero", when there are no ambulances available to respond to 9-1-1 calls, needs a stronger solution than simply hiring 14 new paramedics.
The city's emergency preparedness and protective services committee was told this week that there were 1,819 level zero events in Ottawa in 2022, more than double the number reported the year prior.
Offload delays at hospitals, where paramedics must wait for patients to be admitted before they can be cleared to respond to another call, totalled more than 74,000 minutes in 2022.
Darryl Wilton, president of the Ottawa Paramedics Association, told Newstalk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron that the city can't continue to see these kinds of delays.
"Absolutely, it's a public safety issue," he said, "and somehow we keep getting lucky. You've covered the story with the explosion in Orléans that happened, and we got lucky that that didn't produce dozens of patients. If we have a scenario like that, we are squarely behind the eight-ball."
Wilton said the city's budgeted plan of hiring 14 paramedics this year will not make much of a difference when it comes to the scale of the problem of level zero incidents.
"When you look at a number like 74,216 (minutes), it's hard for people to put that into context. What does that mean? How many hours are lost? How many days are lost?" he said. "You're looking at more than 1,200 hours or 51.5 days where there's no ambulance left to respond."
