MNU President Sandi Mowat Responds to WRHA’s 45-Minute Ambulance Offload Plans

“The WRHA’s plan to require paramedics to offload patients from ambulances into emergency rooms in less than 45 minutes is reckless and will put patient care at greater risk.

At a time of ongoing services cuts, this change will only put more pressure on already understaffed nurses and other health care professionals, making it harder for them to provide safe, quality patient care as they deal with ever-growing patient volumes.

To allow for a situation in which our most vulnerable patients could be left alone in emergency rooms due to an arbitrary time limit is frankly disturbing and fundamentally contrary to our values to put patient safety first.

Nurses are already being required to work record amounts of mandatory of overtime, and emergency rooms are overcrowding due to service consolidation and cutbacks. Asking nurses, physicians and other health care workers to rush through patient care procedures is unacceptable and not conducive to improving health care outcomes.”