Councillor joins Ottawa Paramedics for a ride-along

OTTAWA — Councillor Laura Dudas received a first-hand look at the work Ottawa Paramedics do on a daily basis, including the long-wait to offload patients in an emergency department.

The first term Councillor joined two veteran paramedics for a shift on Ottawa roads Tuesday evening..

On Twitter, Dudas admitted a single shift would not provide her with a full scope of the challenges first responders face, she added “it is incumbent upon me to at least see firsthand the challenges faced by these men and women in uniform.”

During the shift, the Councillor said the paramedics shared stories about the “sheer volume of calls that come in during a shift” and getting stuck in hospitals.

Dudas said her first call was at a seniors residence, where an elderly woman had fallen. When the paramedics transported the woman to the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, Dudas said the paramedics waited “for more than three hours” to offload the patient to nurses.

A report to the Community and Protective Services Department in the fall said paramedics spent 32,000 hours waiting to offload patients in the first seven months of 2019.

At the end of the shift just before 3 a.m., Dudas said “this has been an incredibly rewarding and educational experience.”