Ambulances are lined up outside Saskatoon hospitals, with paramedics spending hundreds of hours each month waiting to hand off patients to hospital staff.

The concern was raised in question period today by the Opposition's health critic Danielle Chartier.

She said numbers provided by the government show paramedics spent a whopping 800 hours waiting to offload patients at Saskatoon's three hospitals in March, 2016.

Of the more than 2,300 trips that month, almost half were delayed. In February and April of this year, paramedics spent more than 600 hours waiting to offload patients.

"There are days when there are literally no ambulances on the road, which is shocking. Firefighters who are also paramedics are often staying at calls – medical calls – until an ambulance becomes available to transport," Chartier said.

Region working on problem

The health minister agrees this is an issue, but Dustin Duncan said it is one the health region is dealing with – by hiring paramedics at the Lighthouse Supported Living emergency shelter and nurse practitioners at long-term care homes.

Duncan said those two initiatives alone have reduced emergency room visits by people who use those facilities by 80 per cent in just a few months.

"They've also moved to allowing for the paramedic team that is arriving at the emergency department to care for multiple patients that are waiting so that another team can get back on the streets," Duncan said. "So we recognize that this is an issue but I think it also shows that it's greater than just what is happening in the emergency department and in the hospital," he said.

Duncan added the health region is looking at how it can provide more appropriate care in a better location than just the emergency department.