DARTMOUTH, N.S. — When her husband of almost 63 years, 86-year-old Ross O'Brien, fell in the driveway of their Dartmouth home Monday, Janet didn't want to move him, suspecting he had broken his hip.
She called for an ambulance. Then she waited -- and waited.
"Every time you would call them back, they would say, 'It's on its' way', and I would say, 'Well where is it?' (They would say) 'We can't let you know that'."
After more than three hours passed, her husband still laying in the driveway in pain and with several cuts. O'Brien says a neighbor called Halifax Regional Police, which dispatched officers to the home.
"They had found out that it was going to be two more hours, because (the ambulance) was coming from Parrsboro," Janet O'Brien said.
Parrsboro is more than 170 kilometers away. The O'Briens live nine kilometers from the Dartmouth General Hospital.
A relative, who is a registered nurse, came to the O'Briens to assess Ross' condition, and determined it was safe to move him.
According to Janet, the officers used a chair to hoist him into a police vehicle and then took him to emergency.
He's now recovering from hip surgery in hospital.
Janet says those in charge need to be held accountable.
"Our system has been going downhill," she says, "it has nothing to do with the ambulance drivers, we are completely in support of them."
It's one of a number of incidents involving ambulance delays in Nova Scotia over the past several years. In March, Halifax resident Anne MacPhee spoke out, after her husband, Kelly, died in her arms in September 2020 while waiting for an ambulance after he collapsed in their home.
In that case, the ambulance was dispatched from Mahone Bay, an hour's drive away.
Three years ago, the union representing the province's 1,000 paramedics began a social media campaign highlighting staffed ambulance shortages called "Code Critical."
"The safety net is overflowing now, and there is no safety net anymore," says Michael Nickerson of IOUE Local 727.
The union says since July 28, there have been several instances in which the entire of mainland Nova Scotia only had a maximum of two available paramedic crews per county.
Nickerson says while long wait times at hospitals for paramedics to offload patients are part of the problem, staffing shortages and paramedic burnout are also affecting the system.
"There's paramedics that are leaving this province to work elsewhere," he says, "there's paramedics leaving the profession due to the state that it is in now."
Nickerson says when crews have to travel long distances for emergency calls, they are at a risk of injury themselves, with loud sirens going for hours, and a risk of accidents.
On the campaign trail, those vying to be the provinces next premier, including the incumbent, made their promises.
At a campaign stop at a Sydney fire hall, Iain Rankin called Ross O'Brien's wait for an ambulance, "unacceptable."
"I have asked, through the deputy minister of health, that we investigate further and ensure this doesn't happen again.
In Eastern Passage, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston blamed the Liberal government for the situation.
"We have highly trained people, we need a government that supports them and first off, acknowledges the problem."
On the campaign trail with federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, provincial New Democratic leader Gary Burrill called it "a systemic crisis in health care as a whole."
The paramedics' union is concerned about the constant strain paramedics are under with these conditions.
"Quite frankly, we're past a crisis now," says Nickerson, "and we're in full-fledged disaster mode."
While Nickerson Nova Scotians should always call 911 in a medical emergency, he worries what could happen on any given call.
When asked for an interview, Emergency Health Services declined CTV's request, providing this short unattributed statement instead:
"This incident is very concerning to us. EHS Operations is investigating this case."
