Medics at 'rock bottom'

[five_alarm]

TORONTO, ON - EMS releases list showing turnover time at 15 hospitals Ambulances wait more than 80 minutes at Humber sites Hoping to persuade hospital administrators to address the crisis, Toronto's Emergency Medical Services has released a ranking of hospitals showing how long paramedics spend in emergency rooms waiting to turn patients over to staff. EMS chief Bruce Farr acknowledged some reluctance yesterday at releasing the list — ordered by city council's community services committee — but said the problem is serious, compromising patient safety, hurting morale among paramedics and wasting valuable resources. "I don't want my paramedics tied up in emergency departments, I want them out on the streets," Farr said. "When the public calls 911, we want to be able to respond in an appropriate time. That's what paramedics are trained to do; they're not expected to be staying for long periods of time in hospital emergency departments," he added. At the same time, Farr said he wants emergency room personnel in 15 hospitals across Toronto to know that he's not pointing fingers at them. "(We're) crying out and saying, `You know what? We've hit rock bottom, we've got to find better ways of doing things.'" The Hospital for Sick Children ranked first with an average time of 40 minutes spent in hospital by paramedics waiting to off-load patients to emergency staff.

Source: thestar.com (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1106693414659&call_pageid=970599119419)

[FFWannabe]

As mentioned in the thread about charging for ambulance "taxi runs" this article outlines exactly what my conversation was about last week.

It's the same here in Ottawa, the wait times in the hospitals are just too long, especially for the non-essential trips for those who are unwilling to pay for a cab, call a friend or go to a walk in clinic or family doctor. I think the problem is much, much deeper than just wait times and much deeper than hospital staff taking advantage of the extra bed and the hands to care for the patient until they can get to them. Our health care system is set up to be abused, it's set up so you can go to your doctor for the sniffles, or emergency for a sore back or a headache. The public is just not educated! What if there was a joint effort among hospitals, administrators and Emergency services to really educate the public on the uses of emergency, ambulances, etc.? I know there is now telehealth, but have yet to see any statistics that show there is less money being spent on doctor/hospital visits as a cause of it, 9 times out of 10 when you call they advise you to see a doctor, when maybe you would normally take a Dristan and deal with the head cold. But would more public education help? Would user fees help?
It just seems like the "system" is set up to fail those who are trying to work within it, and is set up to be abused by those who are looking at it as their right because they pay taxes. I think it's a shame that our city has been without an available ambulance more times then we would care to know (it was announced that we were without one for more than 2 minutes during the cold snap)... but why don't we know? Would educating the public of the dire situation we have been in more then once force them to put more pressure on our city officials to make some real changes and stop threatening to cut services or raise taxes?

I think it's not a problem that is easily fixed, but I bet if there was more public knowledge and awareness that maybe there would be at least some recommendations made (not that the city always respects them... it was recommended that the city hire 45 paramedics and they are looking at maybe hiring 14).

Pardon me for continuing this very long post... But I think there is nothing wrong with letter writing! I will admit that mine have never been addressed, or even answered with a form letter, but if you send them once a week, something has to eventually click? No? I'm not sure if there are union conditions with emergency services personnel writing to their MP, but they are hired to represent the views of the community, and if the community doesn't speak up... too many times the MP then represents the views of his/her government.

Sorry for getting political, but if you take a long hard look at this issue, it's easy to see where the problem arises, it's just tough to see a viable solution.

Sue :(