11-25-2018, 08:12 AM
A big part of the problem is the under the current legislation (Ambulance Act?) is that ambulances cannot transport a patient somewhere other than a hospital even when under circumstances where a more appropriate level of care could be provided. So, if you stub your toe and call and ambulance, 1) they have to send and ambulance (a whole other problem), 2) if they transport you it has to be to a hospital (not to a walk-in clinic, not to your family health team, not to a doctor's office, etc.). Then of course a stub toe is going to be the least priority for the hospital and the ambulance crew gets hung up there waiting.
I believe legislative changes were under way under the previous government, but that work has halted with the election.
There are offload nurse dedicated to do the hand-off at each hospital, but that has either been swamped by demand or doesn't seem to be as effective as intended (other bottlenecks at the hospital like no beds available on admit floors, or offload nurse being used to cover other shortages at the hospital).
I believe legislative changes were under way under the previous government, but that work has halted with the election.
There are offload nurse dedicated to do the hand-off at each hospital, but that has either been swamped by demand or doesn't seem to be as effective as intended (other bottlenecks at the hospital like no beds available on admit floors, or offload nurse being used to cover other shortages at the hospital).
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.