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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, F eb ru ar y 7, 20 19 | 6 30 Benjamin Road, Waterloo, ON 519-746-0060 www.furniturehouse.ca Do Not Pay for 90 Days - No Interest! WE'VE GOT SOME GREAT DEALS TO WARM YOU UP! Come in from the cold and SAVE up to 25% WINTER CLEARANCE CONTINUES! FLOOR MODELS, WALL DECOR, ACCESSORIES AND MORE! 3 pc reclining sectional (available in 3 colors) Only $2299 $149.00 $149.00 $149.00 $189.00 Red or simply because it was the closest to a call. In January, up to the 28th, there were 39 Code Reds. About a half-hour ev- ery day, on average, was a Code Red situation. "This is normal for the flu surge season," Van Val- kenburg told regional councillors on Tuesday while presenting a report on the service's budget is- sue paper. The service is asking for two 12-hour ambulances, as well as required staff and equipment, in the 2019 regional budget. The re- quest for one ambulance is part of the service's master plan, and the request for the other is to address the faster-than-anticipated in- crease in calls due to the growing and aging popula- tion. Waterloo Region is not unique in experiencing Code Red situations. "We might actually be on the low end," Van Val- kenburg said. The issue is complex, and is primarily related to call volume and off-load de- lays at hospital emergency departments. "When they act togeth- er, it compounds the prob- lem," he said. Delays in off-loading pa- tients at hospitals have long been a problem. "This has been a major hurdle," Coun. Sean Strick- land said. "At some point, we have to solve the prob- lem." Van Valkenburg said the service is talking to Peel Region, which elimi- nated off-load delays. He's confident significant prog- ress can be made in Water- loo Region by working with hospitals. "Off-load delay is not an overnight fix and it may take considerable time be- fore benefits are realized," he said. Mike Murray, the re- gion's chief administrative officer, explained that he met with the heads of the re- gion's three hospitals about off-load delays. From 2016 to 2018, such incidents have risen by 230 per cent, reach- ing 8,060 hours last year. "I don't think they were aware of how significant it was and I don't think they were aware of the trends," Murray said. LOCAL FLU SEASON SPIKE IS NORMAL: VAN VALKENBURG Continued from front THE ISSUE: DUE TO OFFLOADING DELAYS, THERE ARE MANY TIMES WHERE NO AMBULANCES ARE AVAILABLE. LOCAL IMPACT: DELAYS IN HEALTH CARE AFFECTS SERVICE LEVELS FOR THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY STORY BEHIND THE STORY Code red situation are not new, but they are concerning. With temperatures dipping well below -20 C over the last week, Waterloo Region was witness to a weather phenomenon usually reserved for more chilly climates. A couple sun dogs made appearances over Waterloo Region skies, creating what appeared to be three suns in the sky. In ac- tuality, the two "suns" flanking the real star are one single halo. The sun dog is caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmo- sphere, caused by cold weather. The crys- tals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them. They were believed to be first noted by Aristotle in ancient Greece, when he wrote that two "mock suns" rose with the sun and followed it through the day until sunset. NEWS WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? COLD WEATHER BRINGS OUT PHENOMENON CALLED A 'SUN DOG' - WHAT IS IT? A sun dog, or parhelion, glows in the sky behind a statue at Madison Avenue and King Street in Kitchener, Wednesday. Parhelia are created when sunlight refracts through ice crystals in the atmosphere, usually on particularly cold days. Metroland file photo