A new report shows it’s taking longer for an ambulance to show up in an emergency and costing more to keep them on the road.

The province’s auditor general reveals wait times have gone up from 14 to 25 minutes and it costs $147 million to operate the service.

Kim Adair says poor response times are due to more 911 calls, staff shortages and temporary ER closures.

A major reason for the troubling number is paramedic resignations and retirements are outpacing hiring while sick time is on the rise.

“It’s taking ambulances longer, on average, to respond to emergency and urgent calls, putting Nova Scotians at risk. This is true for ambulance responses in large urban areas such as Halifax and in the rural parts of the province as well,” Adair said.

Offload times getting worse

Adair’s report shows patients and paramedics are left waiting 2-3 hours in Halifax and Dartmouth to transfer patients from an ambulance into hospital care.

The offload issue is especially prevalent in the Halifax area, which experiences the longest delays in the province.

• 155 minutes at the Cobequid Community Health Centre
• 170 minutes at the Dartmouth General Hospital
• 195 minutes, or over three hours, at the QEII Health Sciences Centre – Halifax Infirmary.

“Nova Scotians living in the Halifax area, the most populated region of the province, are at the greatest risk of the ground ambulance system not meeting their needs,” says Adair.

She calling for more accountability from the Department of Health to improve wait times among 14 recommendations.

Health Minister responds, government accepts recommendations 

The Nova Scotia government has accepted all of the recommendations in the audit and adds it’s already working to make things better.

“We expanded the Emergency Health Services (EHS) fleet with more patient transfer units, medical transport service vehicles, single paramedic response units and a new LifeFlight airplane. They have made a big difference in keeping ambulances focused on responding to emergencies,” said Health Minister Michelle Thompson.

She also points to new air resources to transport non-critical care patients from Yarmouth or Sydney to Halifax, instead of using ambulances.

”It has saved more than 920 hours of ground ambulance time,” Thompson explains. “These ambulances and paramedics are staying in their communities to provide emergency services. This benefits patients and our paramedics.”