Ambulances wait more than 7 hours outside Santa Clara County hospitals while COVID-19 cases increase

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) – In Santa Clara County, the hospital system is so restricted that sometimes ambulances have to wait several hours to unload patients. It is the most recent example of how hospitals in the region are increasingly scarce as the number of ICU admissions continues to increase.

“We take it for granted that if we have an emergency, whatever the need, at any time we can call 911, we can get into an emergency room, we can go to an ICU bed if there is an accident, trauma, heart attack, spill, “James Williams, the Santa Clara County attorney, told ABC7 News.

“And what is happening now is because of the volume, because of the impact on hospitals, we are seeing these waiting times, we are seeing these back-ups in the emergency rooms and that worries us a lot”.

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The San Jose Fire Department had to step in to help. They transported about six patients last week because of the waiting time, according to the county.

“All of our hospitals are feeling these impacts. It is not just one or a city,” said Williams.

Williams said several patients are being held in emergency departments awaiting the opening of a hospital bed, which also contributes to waiting times.

ABC7 News went to the hospital emergency room in San Jose on Monday afternoon. We didn’t see ambulances lined up waiting. Williams said that this is expected and that the numbers change minute by minute.

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“We are having an increase in sporadic incidents over 7 hours, but it only happens once in a while,” he said, “but if it happens to you, when you need access, it doesn’t matter to you what the overall average is over a long period of time. “

Not all counties in the Bay Area have reached this tipping point. In Marin County, Dr. Dustin Ballard, the medical director of Marin’s Emergency Services, said the average waiting time for the ambulance. it is currently between 13 and 17 minutes. The maximum reached was around 30 minutes, which is the state standard.

Even so, the situation in the municipality of Santa Clara is reason enough for neighboring municipalities to be alert.

“That can change,” said Ballard. “We are only a few days away from the New Year and things can change very quickly, so we have to be prepared for the potential for rapid changes as we have seen elsewhere.”

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