Local ambulance calls surge 25 per cent in just seven months

Robert Rushworth, Sault Ste. Marie's chief of paramedic services, is serving notice that ambulance calls are increasing faster than he's ever seen before.

"We're up about 25 per cent calls a week since January," Chief Rushworth says.

"What I'm seeing now, from January to June, July and August of this year, is growth in call volume I've never seen before."

"It's a growth I've never seen in my career."

Later this month, Rushworth says he's going to ask District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board (DSSMSSAB) to increase the size of local emergency medical services.

In 2016, DSSMSSAB hired a consultant to prepare a 10-year-projection for local ambulance services.

This year, that report called for adding another 24-hour ambulance to the fleet.

At budget time, DSSMSSAB decided against doing that, because COVID seemed to be slowing things down.

That's definitely not the case now.

Rushworth told a DSSMSSAB meeting last Thursday he had 12 paramedics on day shift that day.

"I know at least 10 of those did not get their meal break this morning," he said.

"It's not sustainable where we're at, and I'll be bringing forward recommendations."

"We're not unique in the Sault but it's certainly affecting us, with our deployment resources we have. So I will be bringing forth a recommendation in September of what I see is a way to get this back under control."

"Are we getting more emergencies?" board chair Luke Dufour asked the ambulance chief.

"Do you see a lot of patients who were scared to go to the hospital at the beginning of the pandemic and now that vaccination uptake is increased, are we having people calling back to the ambulance service again?"

"We definitely have a huge increase in patients we see that don't go to the hospital," Rushworth replied.

"But they're more our mental health, addictions, that population. They may need some reassurance. They may not even need us. We get a lot of calls where there's an unconscious person on the sidewalk. You go and wake that person up for the third time today.

"That still requires a crew and it requires time. The patient has to be assessed and signed off."

"We get a lot of that. By the volume that emerg deals with daily, there's no fear in going to the hospital. They are packed to the rafters."

Mike Nadeau, DSSMSSAB's chief executive officer, says he'll support the chief's recommendation for service expansion.

"It's gone from approximately 15,500 calls, to where we're going to be forecasting up to 17,000 calls this year," Nadeau said.