St. John’s, N.L. (December 13, 2024) – Barry Petten, Progressive Conservative Shadow Minister for Health and MHA for Conception Bay South, today expressed deep concern over significant ambulance delays that left emergency patients waiting for over an hour. The incident involved a serious three-vehicle accident in Mount Pearl on Wednesday night, where victims had to wait for an ambulance to arrive from Whitbourne.

“This was a dramatic and serious accident,” said Petten. “Multiple people required emergency treatment and transportation to hospital after a head-on collision that caused a third vehicle to flip onto its side. Unfortunately, no ambulances were available locally, leaving victims to fend for themselves. Waiting an hour for an ambulance from Whitbourne in an emergency is completely unacceptable.”

Petten highlighted a similar incident raised by the PC Official Opposition in October, where a shooting victim in Conception Bay South waited for an ambulance dispatched from Whitbourne before ultimately being transported to hospital by his father.

“We clearly have a systemic issue with the availability of ambulances and paramedics during emergencies,” said Petten. “Front-line paramedics have repeatedly shared stories of excessive workloads and delays in offloading patients at hospitals. These challenges are contributing to the crisis. While the Minister continues to ignore the problem, the Liberal government is potentially putting lives at risk. And these are just the incidents we hear about – I fear this is only the tip of the iceberg. The Minister needs to act urgently to stabilize ambulance response times before a preventable tragedy occurs.”