Health News For South West


Thursday, September 12, 2024
Ontario. Ministry of Health - [Toronto - University Avenue] - [Public Health Care]
Ontario Connecting People to Faster Emergency Care

Investments in emergency care reducing ambulance offload times by more than 50 per cent

The Ontario government is investing over $910 million to increase the availability of ambulances across the province and connect people and families to emergency care faster and closer to home.

“When someone experiences an emergency, it is vital that they receive the care they need as quickly as possible,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By strengthening all aspects of the health care system and ensuring faster access to emergency care, our government is providing paramedics and emergency departments with the tools they need as we connect more people across the province to high-quality care, when they need it most.”

Ontario is increasing land ambulance funding to municipalities by an average of eight per cent, bringing the province’s total investment to over $877 million this year, including over $10.7 million in Land Ambulance Services Grant funding for Hastings County. This increase in base funding will help municipalities address increased costs so they can continue to deliver high-quality emergency care.

To further reduce delays paramedics encounter when dropping patients off at a hospital, Ontario is also investing over $33 million through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to help hospitals hire more nurses and other eligible health professionals that are dedicated to offloading ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.

This program allows paramedics to get back out into the community faster and respond to their next 9-1-1 call sooner and has played a significant role in reducing ambulance offload times and increasing ambulance availability for 9-1-1 patients across the province. As a result of this investment, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by more than 50 per cent since its peak in October 2022.

To ensure people receive urgent critical care sooner, Ontario is continuing to implement the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) across the province. The system helps prioritize and triage emergency medical calls to 9-1-1 so that paramedics can be dispatched sooner. Over the last year, the province has rolled out the system to Mississauga, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Ottawa and Renfrew. The province is now accelerating the system’s implementation at the 15 remaining dispatch sites across Ontario by May 2027, over a year ahead of schedule.

With Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the government continues to take action to strengthen the health care system so that it is responsive and is evolving to meet the health needs and priorities of Ontarians, no matter where they live.    
         
Quick Facts:

  • The government’s additional investments in the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program over three years will help municipalities cover around 800,000 dedicated hours to support offloading ambulance patients in the emergency department.
  • Hastings County is receiving nearly $400,000 in Dedicated Offload Nurses Program funding for 2024/25.
  • Currently, over 200 patient care models led by paramedic services across the province are now approved to provide appropriate and timely care options for eligible 9-1-1 patients in the community, instead of in the emergency department.
  • The government is helping more students who want to become paramedics by adding more than 300 spaces in paramedic programs at provincial colleges across Ontario, making it easier for future paramedics to access education and training closer to home.
  • The Ontario Learn and Stay Grant is providing over 350 first-year paramedic students studying in select Northern post-secondary institutions with funding for free tuition, books, compulsory fees and other direct educational costs. After graduating, students will need to work in the same region they studied for a minimum of six months for every full year of study funded by the grant.
         
Quotes:

"The ongoing commitment of the Province to support land ambulance operations through annual and predictable increases of Land Ambulance Service Grants is reflective of their understanding of the growth in demand for emergency prehospital care due to population growth and an ever-aging population. This commitment to maintaining critical resource levels is combined with sustained funding of the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program, which helps to free ambulances for emergency responses more quickly following arrival at hospital. Our Association is also very pleased with the announced accelerated implementation of the Medical Priority Dispatch System, a tool for more accurate and reliable telephone triage and prioritization of incoming ambulance calls. We have long advocated for this program which is based on much stronger quality improvement processes, international recognition, and the ability to improve ambulance availability for the most critical patients."

- Chief Michael Sanderson, President, Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs

"We are pleased to see the continued investments in our communities through the land ambulance service grant and offload delay nursing program funding. Our frontline paramedics face new challenges and increasing call volumes are taxing our emergency rooms. This funding is instrumental to effectively meet the growing demand while ensuring that ambulances are readily available to serve the public."

- Chief Carl Bowker, Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services

"AMO welcomes this important increase in base funding. Municipalities are at the frontlines of Ontario’s health care system by providing emergency medical services to those most in need. Important investments like this keep paramedics on the road responding to residents rather than waiting in hospital emergency departments."

- Mayor Robin Jones, AMO President, Mayor of Westport

"Our ambulance services are an important part of health care, especially in rural areas like Hastings-Lennox and Addington. I am so pleased to see the Ontario government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, increase and expand this incredibly necessary component of our health care system with new local Paramedic bases in Stirling and in the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. "

- Ric Bresee, MPP, Hastings—Lennox and Addington    
         
Additional Resources:

         
Media Contacts:

Hannah Jensen
Minister Jones’ Office
Hannah.R.Jensen@ontario.ca

Media Relations
Communications Branch
media.moh@ontario.ca
416-314-6197

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