A line of ambulances waiting at St. Boniface Hospital isn't cause for alarm, according to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

A picture showing at least seven ambulances lined up at St. B on Wednesday, January 3 has made the rounds on social media. The photo has been shared well over 10,000 times on Facebook.

WRHA acting chief operating officer vice-president nursing and health professions Lori Lamont says they're aware of it and did some investigating.

"We were able to determine that there were a variety of reasons; there were four ambulances that were delivering people to the St. Boniface hospital emergency department, there were a couple of ambulances that were there for interfacility transport... there was also a rural ambulance there as well," she says.

Lamont says of 160 ambulances out on Tuesday, two had significant delays. She isn't sure at this point of either of them are in the photo.

"We want ambulances to be offloaded as quickly as possible," says Lamont. "Our current arrangement requires that if they go longer than 60 minutes that that would be considered an offload delay, (in which) we actually start to record that time as a penalty within our system."

Lamont says the EMS system is being impacted by an influenza outbreak. Overcapacity protocols are in place.

"We have seen a higher level of delay since sort of the end of December, but that has been related to the impact of increased visits to the emergency department and also increased waiting time for admitted patients to move upstairs, largely due to influenza."

The Wait Times Task Force report released last month expressed concern over how closing the Concordia and Seven Oaks emergency departments would affect the St. B ER.

Lamont says they expect consolidation to up the number of ambulances arriving at Winnipeg's three acute care hospitals -- Grace, St. B, and Health Sciences Centre -- but they expect a reduction in interfacility transports, which she says has been an issue for the WRHA in the past.

"We expect, in working with our ambulance partners in the protocols, that those patients would go to, you know, the right place the first time."

Lamont says they don't believe consolidation to date has had any impact on ambulances and offloading. She says data from October and November shows continued improvements in offloading. The WRHA will be looking at December and January, and comparing it to other high-influenza years.

"It's important to recognize that both ambulances and people who bring themselvse to the emergency department don't do so in an orderly and consistent fashion, so what looks very good one hour can look pretty bad in half an hour. So it is important that we are on top of who's coming in (and) what their needs are, and be able to ensure that we have that good flow through the emergency department so the ambulances can offload."

The WRHA, led by the province, converted Victoria hospital's emergency department to an urgent care centre last October. ERs closures at Seven Oaks and Concordia are yet to come.