Ottawa seeing ‘unprecedented’ level zero events

By Anil Jhalli

In 2021, Ottawa saw a total of 750 events and as of October of this year, the city has seen over 1,000 level zero events. 

By June of 2022, Ottawa reached more than 700 level zero events across the capital. 

Level Zero events occur when there are no ambulance crews available to respond to a call.

“This is an unprecedented year and it's continuing to get worse,” said Darryl Wilton, the president of the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa on Wake Up With Rob Snow on Oct. 24. 

Wilton said level zero events are happening when hospitals can't offload patients through their emergency departments. 

“It's continuing day after day,” he added. “We know that hospitals are facing a staffing crisis. They are really struggling as there are not enough hospital beds and not enough staff.”

Wilton said municipal governments need to help come up with solutions to help fix level zero events in Ottawa. 

“What's unfair is pointing the finger at the province and asking the province to fix the problems by themselves,” he said. “Paramedics are 50/50 funded.”

He said the problem isn't just happening in Ottawa. 

“Every major city in Ontario has become essentially a hole in a bathtub drain and it's sucking resources into that hole,” he said. 

Listen to the full interview with Darryl Wilton below:

 

 

 

 

 

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