In the three-plus hours before she died, an 87-year-old woman waited for paramedics while seven ambulances were redirected to cases considered higher priorities.

Staff from a Leaside retirement home had called 911 on Dec. 30 reporting that the woman was suffering from abdominal pains. When the call came in at 3:14 p.m., Toronto Emergency Medical Services deemed her condition low priority.

By early evening, she had taken a turn for the worse. An ambulance was there within minutes. But it was too late. By that time the woman had no vital signs.

Toronto paramedics are blaming a staff shortage for the delay.

City Councillor Janet Davis (Ward 31) said she knew staffing levels “were very low . . . but to have an 87-year-old woman die, while seven ambulances were redirected is completely unacceptable.”

In addressing its fiscal priorities, council has been “ignoring the service needs of the city for too long ... we cannot continue to pretend we can provide desperately needed services without funding them,” she said.

Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, said she fears there will be more case like this given that there are more and sicker seniors living in their own homes and in retirement homes.

Where ill seniors once stayed in hospital or in long-term care homes, they are now being sent home early “sometimes at all costs,” she said.

She said hospitals are “downloading seniors into the community” and there are not enough long-term care beds.

“It’s going to increase the number of people who need an ambulance,” she warned. “It’s going to be a problem.”

Toronto EMS is doing an internal review of what happened in this incident. A spokesperson for Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care confirmed by email that the ministry is “reviewing the call-taking portion of this incident while Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) conducts their investigation.” Then the ministry will review the EMS report.

The rerouting of the ambulances comes as “no surprise” to Mike Merriman, ambulance unit chair, CUPE Local 416.

He says staffing levels “reached a crisis point a year or so ago — that’s why I was trying to warn council.”

The cause of the woman’s death is not clear.

Nor is it certain whether she would have survived had an ambulance reached her sooner, said Geoff MacBride, president of the Toronto Paramedic Association

“Proper procedure was followed at all times …. As more life threatening calls occur, resources are reallocated and those deemed not as life threatening are pushed back. Unfortunately, that seems to be what happened here,” MacBride said.

Ambulance rerouting in Toronto is not unusual.

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“This is not an anomaly — this happens all the time,” says Merriman. “It all boils down to staffing levels. We haven’t had hiring over and above attrition in at least 10 years. There’s been a 5 per cent increase in calls every year . . . you just have to do the math.”

Twenty-four new EMS recruits have just joined the staff. And another 50 are being hired.

It’s a step in the right direction but Davis says she doesn’t know if the new hirings “will be sufficient.”

MacBride said the shortage of paramedics has been long-standing.

“All parties have been calling for more paramedics and more ambulances for years,” he said, arguing that 100 to 200 more paramedics are needed “just to keep up.”

The 50 new hires will be the “first increase in the base compliment of paramedics in more than a decade,” he said.

A growing and aging population is putting more demands on EMS, he said,

“Unfortunately it is just a symptom of the need for more resources as the population ages and increase,” he said.

Toronto council is expecting a report any time now on Toronto EMS and Fire services from a third party consultant.

“This report may recommend add more staff — I don’t know,” said Councillor Davis.

Correction: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the date on which the 911 call was made from a Leaside retirement home