By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The ambulance offload delays that began to concern health authorities back in 2022 continue, Northumberland Paramedics Chief Susan Brown told members of county council’s Community Health Committee Tuesday.
Brown’s report covered four hospitals they most frequently respond to – Northumberland Hills Hospital, Campbellford Memorial Hospital, Peterborough Regional Health Centre and Trenton Memorial Hospital.
In 2025, they transported some 10,795 patients to and among these four hospitals, during which off-load delays accounted for 1,072 hours and affected 29% of those patients.
A hospital-by-hospital breakdown shows that, at NHH, off-load times have never been higher – 815.16 hours in 2025 vs. 755.27 in 2022. By contrast, there has been a significant reduction at the other three sites.
Brown noted that there is officially an off-load delay when they have had the patient on site for a half-hour during which no transfer of care has occurred, because “the aim is to return the paramedics to a state of operational readiness within 30 minutes of arrival at hospital.”
The impacts include increased response times and increased stress and fatigue, as paramedics wait in hospital hallways and get calls they are unable to respond to, not to mention missed meal breaks and incurred overtime.
Deputy Warden Mandy Martin asked about special funding the province had been providing to facilitate offloading. It’s still in place, Brown said, but the timing could be better.
“Every year we apply for the funding in February upon invitation. It takes until August to receive our funding,” she explained.
Last year they applied for about $500,000. In August, they got $168,000, which they divided evenly between NHH and CMH to allow them to supplement their staffing.
This matter was identified by the committee to be discussed further by county council at their Feb. 18 meeting.
