Niagara ER's and EMS Overwhelmed as COVID Cases Soar

Niagara Public Health reporting 434 new infections for January 2nd

Meanwhile Ontario s reporting 16,714 new cases today after setting a new daily record of 18,445 new infections yesterday.

In a pair of releases, both Niagara EMS and Niagara Health outline the pressure on both paramedics and emergency room staff to handle the growing caseload of patients.

EMS noting we are currently "experiencing significant operational demands which if not addressed, could result in a disruption to service. To ensure paramedics are available for time-critical, life-threatening emergencies in our communities  Niagara EMS is reminding callers that 911 calls should be for emergency situations only."

Effective immediately and until further notice, Niagara EMS says it is implementing the following plans in order to maintain essential response levels:

• Dispatchers will defer all eligible calls to the Emergency Communication Nurse, where alternative care options will be discussed. This may mean some callers identified with non-life threatening emergencies may wait longer to speak to a nurse for secondary assessment.
• Recommendations for alternate care plans will be emphasized. Where the nurse triage protocol recommends alternate care, no transport resource will be sent to eligible calls except when a patient requires an emergency response

EMS adding "dispatchers and paramedics are answering and responding to 911 calls as promptly as possible. Some non-life-threatening, not time-critical calls may take longer to service, with some callers waiting up to several hours for a response unit."

Meantime, Niagara Health noting in a release, it is seeing a high number of patients in local emergency rooms who do not need this level of healthcare and instead should see a family physician or other primary care provider.

Niagara Health officials add  "A significant number of these people are seeking a COVID-19 test and have mild or no symptoms. In these cases, people should stay home and rest while self-isolating to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus. Patients should reach out to their primary care provider for help managing symptoms at home, if needed."