Seeing an ambulance arrive at the emergency department can create the impression that someone is about to be rushed straight past the waiting room.
In Saskatchewan, that usually is not the case.
Arriving by ambulance does not guarantee faster care. According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, patients in emergency departments are prioritized using the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, based on the severity of their condition, not how they arrive at hospital.
Triage, not transport, decides priority
Under the CTAS system, patients are assessed by a triage nurse and assigned a level from one to five.
CTAS 1 and 2 patients, including those with life-threatening conditions, are treated immediately. CTAS 3, 4, and 5 patients are considered stable and may wait, even if they arrived by ambulance.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority says arriving by EMS does not guarantee faster care, as all patients are triaged based on medical urgency.
That means a walk-in patient with chest pain may be seen before an ambulance patient with a minor injury. That is not line-jumping. It is how emergency medicine is designed to work.
Why ambulance patients are sometimes still waiting
Some provinces, including Ontario, use formal programs that allow stable patients, brought in by paramedics, to be transferred directly to the waiting room so paramedics can return to service.
Saskatchewan does not have a standardized, province-wide program like that.
Saskatchewan Health Authority officials have said emergency care is based on patient acuity, meaning some ambulance patients may wait in the emergency department just like walk-in patients.
When emergency departments are full or short-staffed, paramedics may be required to remain with a patient after arrival until care can be formally transferred.
The regional ripple effect
When paramedics are tied up waiting to offload patients, those units are unavailable for new 911 calls.
To maintain coverage, additional ambulances may need to be redeployed from neighbouring communities or outside the city, reducing available resources across the region and potentially increasing response times for other emergencies.
Some local officials have told The Border Pulse that ambulances from their communities can sometimes be dispatched outside their home area to help maintain coverage when resources are stretched elsewhere.
Residents in Lloydminster will sometimes see local ambulances travelling north out of the city, including toward the Onion Lake area, as part of those regional coverage efforts.
Ambulances provide care, not faster access
Calling an ambulance remains the right decision for serious or urgent medical emergencies. Paramedics provide immediate assessment and treatment and can begin care long before a patient reaches the hospital.
What an ambulance does not do is guarantee faster access to a doctor once inside the emergency department.
If a patient is critically ill or injured, they will be treated immediately. If they are stable, they may wait, regardless of how they arrived.
That is the reality of how Saskatchewan emergency departments work.
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1 thought on “ER reality check: Ambulance patients can wait too”
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Great information to the public! This will inform more people about our system and help it work better. As a first responder we are disheartened to see people who absolutely NEED an ambulance have to wait – this could mean life or death. With all of health care being short staffed, conflicted with difficult patients and resources, everyone including that members of the public meaning to utilize such resources must do their part to help the system work better.