Emergency responders say this tridemic is straining the entire emergency response system with respiratory illnesses flooding dispatch centers and impacting ambulance response times.
“We’re receiving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls every day and were transporting as a result of those calls, were transporting somewhere on the order of about 270 patients a day which is up considerably from the peak days we had a year ago,” said Steve Hill of the Contra Costa County Fire District.
They’re now asking the community to avoid calling 911 if it's not an emergency.
To put that into perspective, the Contra Costa County Fire District, who serves most of the county, says they only have 60 ambulances, and during this time last year, they were transporting a max of 240 patients on some of the busiest days.
“Unfortunately a lot of the transports that we are making right now are not really critical emergency medical situations,” said Hill.
The county’s EMS medical director says flu-like illnesses make up nearly 20% of their call volume — a nearly 500% increase compared to this time last year.
And some of the calls are patients asking for transport to get tested for respiratory diseases.
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“That limits and prevents ambulances and pre-hospital personnel to service other patients,” said Senai Kidane, EMS medical director for Contra Costa County.
To top it off, the county says ambulances are now waiting up to two hours just to unload a patient.
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“If it's not an emergency that requires ambulance transport, we're asking them to consider things like talking to their primary care physician, to call an advice nurse, to go to a local urgent care clinic,” said Hill.
The county health department shared a bulletin with reasons to call 911.
They include:
- Stroke
- Sudden blindness
- Heavy bleeding
- Choking
- Drowning
