The reduction of hospital services in Durham is having a significant impact on Grey County paramedic services.
At county council’s meeting on Aug. 8, the impact of the recent decision by South Bruce Grey Health Centre to eliminate in-patient beds at its hospital in Durham was discussed during the presentation of a report about paramedic response times and plans to build a new ambulance base in Feversham.
West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles raised the issue and asked how the health care reductions at Durham hospital are impacting paramedic services.
Kevin McNab, the county’s director of paramedic services, said the changes at Durham hospital are impacting paramedic calls and it’s an issue for the county to keep an eye on.
“There is an impact to our service and there is an impact to patients that we can see based upon two months of data,” said McNab.
Since June, the hospital in Durham has been operating from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. as an urgent and emergent care centre. During the hours the hospital is closed, paramedics must take patients to other hospitals in the nearby area.
McNab said of the 97 calls for paramedic services, 60 per cent of calls have been directed to other hospitals and 19 patients were moved out of Durham hospital because there are no in-patient beds there.
McNab said the hospital situation in Durham is causing paramedics to spend extra time transferring patients elsewhere and said it has resulted in 30 hours of extra time per month so far.
“It’s just another side effect of closing (emergency departments),” Eccles noted.
McNab said county staff are preparing a financial analysis of the situation for a future report.
“It’s not about just the per-hour costs, it’s about what it costs to add a car (ambulance). It’s very expensive to add a car to a system,” said McNab. “If the pressures of this demand continue and that results in another car being added. It’s very expensive.”
