Hurry up and wait.
It's a common theme for people heading to the emergency room at Cambridge Memorial Hospital as long wait times and offload delays for ambulances have been seen in recent weeks.
For John Riches, chief of Waterloo Region Paramedic Services, his team's hands are tied when it comes to such delays, he said.
"The challenge for us is offload delays happen to us, but we can't do anything," Riches said.
"My sense is it's a combination of everything in the hospital. Their biggest challenge is the volume of patients that are very sick within their facility."
Riches says 911 call volumes are up and with a number of ambulances potentially sitting at the hospital at any given time, it creates a serious risk to public safety.
Paramedics are also seeing an increase in low acuity patients calling for care, which Riches attributes to a lack of options patients feel they have.
"I think there's a lot of reasons for it," he said. "One of which is some people aren't attached to a primary care physician and feel like they have no other choice."
Late last year, the Ontario College of Family Physicians released family doctor statistics for Cambridge, citing 12.4 per cent of people were without one. By 2026, 36,910 people won't have a family doctor, according to OCFP projections.
When arriving at the hospital by ambulance it should take paramedics 30 minutes or less to pass off a patient to hospital staff, Riches said. Anything over that time frame is considered a delay.
Given the severity of the situation, provincial NDP leader Marit Stiles was in Cambridge this week to discuss the ongoing issues with members of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition.
Stiles said the current provincial government needs to reverse course and funnel more money into hospitals to support staffing and resources, referring to the impacts of Bill-60.
The bill, known as the Your Health Act, expands the private delivery of some forms of care.
"The government is making a conscious decision not to put those dollars and resources into the public hospitals," Stiles said.
"They want to move this system into a more privatized model. This is what they believe in, they want to see a privatized system. They're trying to sell the idea we're in a crisis and what we're saying is this is costing us more."
Jim Stewart, chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, said the emergency room wait times and offload delays are the obvious concern, but people need to start asking the question of why it's reached the point it has, not only in Cambridge but across the province.
"I would suggest we stop paying for contracted private agency nurses" Stewart said of the practice. "Why would we spend all that money on an agency nurse when we could hire a bunch of nurses and populate our hospital? It's all about operational dollars."
Riches, Stiles and Stewart were all quick to praise hospital staff and the level of care being provided, with Stiles and Stewart shifting the blame to the system itself.
Stiles believes there are immediate actions the government could take in order to help ease the stress.
"This is not inevitable. We have to get Ontarians speaking up because I think a lot of people have lost hope that anything can change," she said.
"We have not kept up with the level of funding for a health-care system to meet our needs. We need to start opening up more nurse practitioner led clinics, more community health centres and health teams. There are many primary care teams ready to go and they have their applications in. They just need the OK and the funding."
To immediately address the delay issues on the road, Riches is advising residents explore their care options in non-emergency situations.
"Our system is here to support people who are having a medical emergency such as heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrests and accidents," he said.
"We would like people to consider alternative options like urgent care if available and when they're able."
A request for comment from Cambridge MPP Brian Riddell went unanswered.
