But six other hospitals saw their offload times increase, from an extra three minutes at the Dartmouth General to 13 minutes at the Cape Breton Regional.Īdair said the poor response times were symptomatic of a system that had seen a 17 per cent escalation in 911 calls that required an ambulance over the last five years. "We do know that in four regional sites that times have gone down over the last eight months since January," said Beaton.įigures provided by the Health Department to the CBC, following the meeting, show ambulance offload times at the province's 10 busiest hospitals fluctuated from a low of 23 minutes in February at the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow to 178 minutes, in January, at the Halifax Infirmary.Ī comparison between offload times in January, compared to August did show average offload times had improved at hospitals in Truro, Yarmouth, Halifax and Amherst. When it comes to another significant problem, ambulance offload times at hospital emergency departments, Beaton suggested similar improvements. Nova Scotia ambulance service plagued by continuing poor response times: auditor."We have seen a reduction in the last number of months, albeit it's only a few minutes, but it does show a signal in the right direction." "Response times absolutely a concern," Beaton told the committee. Her report found the average wait time for an ambulance in 2022 rose to 25 minutes from 14 minutes.Īuditors based their findings on data collected up until December 2022.īeaton told the committee the situation had improved since then. 'Absolutely a concern'Īdair's report said the contract establishes acceptable response times - the time from when a call is received to the ambulance's arrival - based on the priority of the call and the community from which it is placed. "It would be specific to the issue of the day, but if they are not meeting performance targets based on the contract then, yes, I would say there would be an opportunity to provide a fine to the company."īeaton said the contract does set out exemptions for situations where the company can't meet response times because of things that are out of its control, such as weather. "We are building our data capacity to independently look at that," he said. was renewed in 2021.īeaton said his department is now accumulating system data that can help determine when poor ambulance performance can be attributed to the company. ![]() ![]() A Nova Scotia Health Department official says the government will fine the province's ambulance service if it fails to meet performance standards for response times.Ĭraig Beaton, associate deputy health minister, made the comments Wednesday at a legislature hearing in response to last week's report by auditor general Kim Adair.Īdair said there was a lack of accountability in the ambulance service because no fines had been levied since the province's contract with Emergency Medical Care Inc.
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