HALIFAX -- A report into Nova Scotia's privately operated ambulance service says a significant amount of ambulance time is exhausted by unproductive non-emergency activities. The report by Fitch and Associates released Monday says ambulances spend a considerable amount of time waiting in hospitals to offload patients into busy emergency departments. The U.S.-based consulting firm also notes ambulances are often tied up responding to requests to transfer patients between facilities, a task it says could be handled by other transport options. "Resources that could be dedicated to emergency responses are unnecessarily deployed to the (inter-facility transport) system to meet the contract demands," the report said. "This is inefficient and ineffective."