The Hamilton Paramedic Service recently released its 2024 annual report, with significant developments recorded over the past year, including the lowest reported number of code zero events in over 15 years.
A code zero event is when there is one or fewer ambulances available to respond to emergencies and is often caused by long offload delays at hospitals.
When there is a code zero event, lower priority calls have to be queued, higher priority calls have longer response times, and ambulances from other municipalities are assigned to respond to calls in the City of Hamilton.
In 2022, the City of Hamilton had 344 code zero events.
In 2024, there were only two code zero events, both in January, and they both lasted less than 10 minutes.
That marks the second year of significant decreases in code zero events – there were 32 in 2023 – and a decrease of approximately 94 per cent year over year.
It should be noted that the Government of Ontario gave $2.7 million in both 2023 and 2024 to Hamilton hospitals through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program.
That program is used to hire more nurses and other health professionals dedicated to offloading ambulance patients at hospital emergency departments.
The Ontario government also increased Hamilton Paramedic Service funding by 16 per cent for 2024, which translates to almost $5 million extra.
The provincial government standard stipulates that the transfer of care of patients from ambulances to hospitals when they arrive at the emergency department should occur within 30 minutes, 90 per cent of the time.
In 2024, Juravinski Hospital was below the target time of 30 minutes for all 12 months of the year.
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton only had four months below the target time.
Meanwhile, the Hamilton General Hospital did not achieve the target in any month of the year.
Nevertheless, the city experienced an improvement in target times compared to 2023.
In 2024, Hamilton paramedics spent a total of 22,192 hours in excess of 30 minutes in hospital emergency departments which was an 18 per cent decrease compared to 2023.
That number peaked in 2022 when Hamilton paramedics spent 39,434 hours in excess of the target.
In terms of response time compliance, Hamilton Paramedic Service surpassed the standard for achieving the target times for five out of the six Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) categories.
Target response times are expected to be achieved 75 per cent of the time and are set at 6 minutes for Vital Signs Absent, 8 minutes for Category 1 (Resuscitation), 10 minutes for Category 2 (Emergent), 15 minutes for Category 3 (Urgent), 20 minutes for Category 4 (Less Urgent) and 25 minutes for Category 5 (Non-Urgent).
Hamilton paramedics achieved the target time 67 per cent of the time for Vital Signs Absent, 79 per cent for Category 1, 81 per cent for Category 2, 89 per cent for Category 3, 95 per cent for Category 4 and 98 per cent for Category 5.
There were 88,524 events in 2024 (up 5.4 per cent year over year), 106,683 vehicle responses (up 4.7 per cent), and 61,054 transports (up 6.2 per cent).
The most common calls were for a fall (14 per cent) and shortness of breath (13 per cent).
The 2024 Annual Report marks the last one for Hamilton Paramedic Service Chief Michael Sanderson as he plans to retire in August.
Last year marked Sanderson’s 50th year in the field of paramedicine.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
