Paramedics in Waterloo region, Wellington county transferring patients from hard-hit GTA hospitals

Paramedic services in Waterloo region, Guelph and Wellington County are among those in Ontario sending ambulances to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to transfer patients out ofhospitals hit hard by COVID-19.

"We haven't been asked to do this before in the past year. It's a scary sign that the hospitals are this full," said Stephen Dewar, chief and general manager of Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Services.

On Thursday,Ontario reported 4,736 new cases of COVID-19 and a third-wave high of 29 more deaths of people with the illness on Thursdayas total hospitalizations climbed to more than 1,900.

GTAofficials put out a call tooutside paramedic services Friday, said Dewar. Over the weekend, he and other local chiefs developed a plan to each contribute an ambulance roughlyone day a week.

Dewar said the participating services include:

• Waterloo region.
• Hamilton.
• Norfolk County.
• Brant County.
• Niagara region.

Paramedics will work overtime to help with the transfers, said Dewar.

"Each paramedic service that's involved in this has stipulated that If it comes to a point where it affects our service, we would have to withdraw from assisting the GTA," said Dewar.

'Hopefully' not a sign of things to come

Participating paramedics services bringing a patient to a GTA hospital won'tnecessarily be the ones returning them to hospitals in their local areas, said Dewar. Rather, paramedics in Guelph and Wellington County will bring patients to wherever a hospital has indicated it can take them.

Most willlikely be COVID-19 patients, but Dewar expects hospitals may ask to transfer others in order to free up space.

Dewar said he hopes this unusual step isn't a sign of more bad news to come.

"It's only a matter of time before, potentially, this fills up every hospital, not just the GTA hospitals," said Dewar. "Hopefully the shutdown and vaccinations will stem the third wave before we get to that point.

"This is a very scary sign that the Greater Toronto Area had to ask for help, and hopefully it's not a sign of other steps that need to be taken."