HALIFAX: The provincial government said the addition of more Emergency Health Services (EHS) transport operators will help take stress off the emergency response system.
The province announced recently that EHS is hiring 100 more transport operators across the province to “handle routine patient transfers.”
In a press release issued late in July, the province said these new, non-paramedic staff will help reduce pressure on the ambulance system and allow paramedics to focus on responding to emergency calls.
“We recognize the pressure the Emergency Health Services system is under and how this impacts patients, paramedics, and the delivery of emergency care,” said Michelle Thompson, Minister of Health and Wellness.
Khalehla Perrault, Communications and Media Relations Advisor with the Department of Health and Wellness, wrote The Reporter via email that the Eastern Zone (which takes in Antigonish, Guysborough, Victoria, Richmond, and Inverness counties, as well as the Cape Breton Regional Municipality) currently has 10 units.
“These include two multi-transfer patient units that have the ability to transfer two patients in a stretcher at one time. These are staffed with a transport operator, and depending on the patients, with one or two paramedics. (There are) four patient transfer units that transport patients between facilities staffed by a transport operator, (and) three medical transfer service units that transport patients between facility and the community, staffed by a transport operator,” she wrote. “By the end of August, there will also be two low acuity transfer units in Eastern Zone that will be staffed by transport operators. These units support the transfer of low-risk patients who do not require a paramedic to provide clinical care during transport.”
Perrault wrote that the 2019 Fitch and Associates report, which reviewed the EHS system, recommended that EHS find ways to reduce the reliance of paramedics for non-clinical transports.
“Reducing our reliance on ambulances to transport non-critical or non-urgent patients was a recommendation of the 2019 Fitch Report and will mean more ambulances will be available to respond to emergencies,” the minister noted.
Perrault wrote that the system needs to change.
“The province recognizes that Emergency Health Services is experiencing pressures that have a direct impact on patients, paramedics, and the delivery of emergency care across the province,” she wrote. “In order to address those pressures, changes to the EHS system are required. One such change is the addition of transport operators to operate the Medical Transport Service and Patient Transfer Units.”
Currently, there are 80 transport operators who support EHS’s Medical Transport Service and Patient Transfer Units, the province said, noting the new hires will increase the number to 180.
Both types of transfer services use specifically designed vehicles staffed by transport operators who have training in first aid, vehicle operations and EHS equipment and have direct radio access to the EHS Medical Communications Centre, the province said.
The province said the Medical Transport Service is for low-risk patients who have been assessed and do not require medical care during transport between hospital facilities or home and hospital. Patient Transfer Units are used between health care facilities for transfers that are not critical or urgent, they stated.
“If at any time a patient requires clinical care during their transport, a paramedic would be present,” Perrault wrote. “In 2021, EHS responded to 182,000 calls, of which about 30 per cent did not require medical care during transport. The addition of transport operators will allow paramedics to focus on where they are need, responding to emergency calls across the province.”
The province added that the total calls from 2021 came out to an average of 500 per day.