Number of standby incidents project to rise by 36% in Frontenac county this year

Jeff Green | May 04, 2022

Last week, Dave Doran, the acting President of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 462, which represents Paramedics who work for Frontenac Paramedic Services, made public OPSEU's concerns over the level of ambulance service being offered in Kingston and Frontenac County.

In an interview with the Frontenac News, he noted that staffing and equipment shortages, increased call volumes and delays caused by over crowding in hospital emergency departments were resulting in burnout among paramedics in his local, and longer wait times for patients awaiting care and transport to hospital.

He said that the number of standby incidents, when ambulances are moved from their regular base to another location, as well as shifts being missed due to staffing and even vehicle shortages, are threatening the service.

Frontenac Paramedic Services responded by saying that they hae been planning for growth in service demand, and are putting more resources into the system.

Frontenac Paramedic Services has now provided statistics around the number of standby incidents that have occurred since 2019 at each of the 8 ambulance bases that they operate.

Kelly Pender, the Chief Administrative Officer for Frontenac County, said that calls for service, as well as sick time, dropped in 2020 as a result of pandemic lock downs, but that 2021 and the first third of 2022.

“In the most recent Omicron wave, the number of visits to the hospital has increased and so has sick time as more staff are testing positive or have close family members that are positive. This trend has also affected the care staff at KGH resulting in longer off load times for paramedics,” he said, in an email to the News.

He also said that standbys, which can be caused by meal breaks, are recorded by incident, not time duration, and could “could be a short as a few minutes, or as long as a couple of hours.”

They are initiated by dispatch in order to cover for meal breaks, offload delays in hospital, or extra long calls.

The statistics that we provided show that the entire system is experiencing an increase in standby incidents of 4% for 2022 over 2021, if trends over the first three months persist for the rest of year.

But will call volumes being up in Kingston, the number of standby incidents at the rural bases in Parham and Roberstville are up by a lot more than that, 36% over 2021 and 42% over 2019 when stats for the two bases are combined.

The Robertsville base, which is only open 12 hours a day, is projected to see 588 standby incidents in 2022, 1.6 on average per shift, a 70% increase over last year.

The numbers had been steady for 2019-2021 at just under or just over 1 incident per day for the past three years at the Robertsville base.

Pender said that “a standby movement doesn’t mean that the home base area is left uncovered, or that residents are vulnerable. The seamless nature of Ontario paramedic service means that a North Frontenac call could be responded to by Denbigh, Northbrook or Perth.

North Frontenac residents already receive service from these locations, as well as the Parham ambulance, during the 12 hours each day when there is not ambulance assigned to the Roberstville base.

The situation is not as dramatic for the Parham base, which is project to have 844 standby incidents for its 24 hour, 7 day a week ambulance service. That is an increase of just under 20% from the 724 incidents in 2021.

By contrast, the Sydenham base is projectd to see a 10% decrease in standby incidents in 2022.

The statistics for Wolfe Island, a station that Dave Doran said was “hardly ever staffed at all” are unclear. There have been 0 standby incidents at the Marysville base in 2022, and the number had already been diminishing since 2019. There were 84 standys in 2019, 77 in 2020, and 33 in 2022.

We are seeking clarification from Frontenac Paramedic Serivces as to whether the lack of standbys ion Wolfe Island is the result of their being no ambulances stationed at the base in the first place, as Dave Doran claimed, or whether there is some other reason.

Kelly Pender said that there are many pressures facing Frontenac Paramedic Services as the result of COVID, a situation that is mirrored elsewhere.

“The challenges with global supply chains have not only made it difficult to buy a Honda Civic, but it has also delayed delivery of ambulances. Our 2022 order placed in 2021 is still pending and we will be going to Council shortly to ask for approval to pre-order for 2023 when we expect to add another 12/365 shift ... Paramedic services across Canada are in a similar situation.”

If a new shift is added in Kingston, and staffing and vehicle shortages abate as well, it will have an impact on the number of standby incidents in places like Robertsville, because of the cascading effect of calls in Kingston, as calls go out for the Sydenham ambulance to move into Kingston, triggering a call for the Parham ambulance to move south to cover the shortfall, and a call to the Robertsville ambulance to head south the cover North and Central Frontenac.