Guelph-Wellington paramedics issue another code red alert

Ambulances lined up outside Guelph General Hospital on Aug. 20. (Twitter)

The Guelph Wellington Paramedic Service said on Tuesday afternoon it was back into a code red as no ambulances were available.

The paramedic service tweeted the update just before 5 p.m.

“No local ambulances/paramedics are available to service calls. Please save ambulances for emergencies. There are significant delays at local emergency departments,” the paramedic service said.

Leanne Swantko, deputy chief of the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service, told CTV News Tuesday’s code red lasted around 30 minutes.

Swantko estimated so far this year there have been close to 30 code reds issued by the Guelph-Wellington Paramedics.

"We only have two ambulances available for whole area (code yellow)," said Swantko in an email.

She added that lots of ambulances were on offload delay.

ONGOING CODE RED ISSUE

On Sunday afternoon, the Guelph-Wellington region experienced a code red. The paramedic service had been helping neighbouring regions that had also gone into code red.

The paramedic service was also in a code red briefly on Oct. 11.

At the time, Swantko told CTV News Kitchener a code red can both stem from and lead to even longer off-load delay times for paramedics, adding it continues to be a serious concern across the province.

The critical issue is not unique to Guelph, as Region of Waterloo paramedics announced a series of code red alerts over the last several days.

On both Friday and Saturday, Waterloo region paramedics entered into code red situations.

Ahead of the municipal election, the regional chairs outlined what they would do to help ease the growing concern with local paramedic services.