Middlesex-London paramedics on pace for a record year

Crashes, COVID-19 put strain on EMS, hospitals A string of crashes, along with COVID-19, made for a challenging Thursday for Middlesex-London paramedics. CTV's Nick Paparella reports.

London, Ont. — Paramedics in the London region were pushed to the limit on Thursday as they dealt with a rash of collisions -- one that sent five people to hospital near Strathroy and two others in west London which also caused injuries.

Chief Neal Roberts with the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service says it’s been that kind of year.

“Yesterday was busier than we’ve been,” he says. “We brought in additional resources.”

Roberts says it’s all adding up to what could be a record year for calls. In 2020 they responded to 90,000 but this year they are on pace to top that with more than 100,000.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in call volume and an increase in emergency department call volume,” says Roberts.”We’ve already had put on two additional vehicles in 2021 as part of our enhancement program.”

When paramedics are busy, so are emergency departments. Dr. Christie MacDonald, city-wide Chief of Emergency Medicine says that theme has been a constant for months.

“That’s really the basis of emergency medicine,” says MacDonald. “We don’t know what’s going to come through the door at any given time so we’re usually pretty adaptive and, you know, and adapt on a dime and deal with whatever comes.”

And with a fourth wave of COVID-19 underway, things are not expected to ease anytime soon.

MacDonald added, “We’re putting good plans in place for wave four and we’ll continue to adapt as we need to as the community has adapted as well.”