The President of the province’s Paramedics Association says busy emergency rooms are adding to red alerts in the system.

Red alerts happen when there is no ambulance available to take an emergency call, usually because they are already tied up with a patient.

Rodney Goodie says the number of red alerts in the province has been growing steadily for a number of years, with no real change to the system. And he says offload delays at the hospital are causing further troubles. He told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly the ER is overwhelmed with patients.

He says paramedics are sitting in Emergency waiting to offload their patients, causing further red alerts.

The director of the Public Ambulance Operators shares the same concern.

Wade Smith says they’re experiencing significant offloading delays at all major hospitals, and says paramedics are waiting for hours.

He says they’ve been hours under red alert in Whitbourne without an ambulance.