RCMP say they're taking more patients to hospital when ambulances aren't on hand

RCMP across Nova Scotia say they are taking people to the hospital more often because medical transportation is not available.

However, the provincial ambulance service disputes that, saying its vehicles can be delayed because paramedics are at higher priority calls.

The Mounties started tracking the number last year because they were becoming more frequent and found they provided people with medical transportation 33 times in 2022 and 15 more times in the first two-and-a-half months of this year, said spokesperson Cpl. Chris Marshall.

"Our primary function is to preserve and protect life and sometimes if that means transporting someone to the hospital, then our members are going to do that," he said. "Ultimately, our members are doing it because people need medical care and our members are certainly not going to walk away from someone who's in need."

Most of the calls were not for serious medical issues, but they take police away from their main duties, which are crime investigation and prevention, Marshall said.

The calls usually start out with no specific request for an ambulance, he said.

"These are calls that we'd be dispatched to anyway, just because it's a first responder response type of call and when we arrive it's then determined that there is no ambulance that is available to transport and then our members are left having to make the decision as to whether or not we have to do the transport."

Marshall said when ambulances are not available, officers first try to find a family member or friend who can take someone to the hospital before deciding to go.

Marshall said he is not aware of any instances when officers were unable to respond to a critical call because they transported a patient.

"Our members respond to multiple calls, sometimes at the same time and in various areas, so we certainly have capacity to deal with the triaging of calls and dealing with priority calls versus non-priority calls," he said.

Charbel Daniel, executive director of operations for Emergency Medical Care, the company that runs the provincial ambulance service, said EMC reviews each medical call involving RCMP with the Mounties and the province.

In most cases cited by the RCMP, an ambulance was available, but paramedics were attending more serious calls, Daniel said.

"A lot of these transports that we've discussed and reviewed with police have been delayed transports of ambulances arriving on scene, because there's higher-acuity calls coming in."

Higher-acuity calls are more serious cases involving conditions such as heart attacks, strokes or difficulty breathing, he said. Less urgent calls involve people feeling unwell, cuts and abrasions, chronic illness or substance abuse.

Daniel said the ambulance service has been under strain for a decade and EMC has taken several steps to relieve some of that pressure.

He said the provincial government has supported various initiatives, including adding a nurse to the dispatch centre to help with less serious calls and adding transfer vehicles to the fleet to keep paramedics from getting tied up waiting to unload patients at hospitals.

EMC now plans to increase the capacity of its transfer service to help relieve RCMP of some of the medical calls they are making, Daniel said.

Marshall and Daniel said they are working with the departments of justice and health and wellness to figure out why the numbers are climbing and to try to reduce them.

In the meantime, RCMP could decide to reduce the number of trips officers are making to the hospital, Daniel said.

"We don't encourage the transportation of these patients," he said. "We do ask for them to wait for us to attend. Ultimately, [the ambulance service] should be the one on scene doing these assessments and transporting patients."

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