Ontario Connecting People to Faster Emergency Care
August 15, 2024
Thorold – As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is investing over $32 million in Niagara to connect people to emergency care faster and increase the availability of ambulances.
In Niagara, the Ontario government is increasing land ambulance funding by eight percent, bringing the province’s investment in the region to $30,317,806 this year. This increase in base funding helps ensure municipalities address increased costs so they can continue to deliver high-quality emergency care.
In addition, to further reduce delays paramedics encounter when dropping patients off at a hospital, Ontario is investing $1,853,196 in Niagara through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to hire more nurses and other eligible health professionals dedicated to treating emergency patients.
“This key funding is critical in supporting our frontline response and providing high-quality emergency care for patients across Niagara,” said Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West.
“As local MPP, I have been advocating for increased support to our local emergency medical services and offload health care workers. This funding through the Land Ambulance Service Grant and Dedicated Offload Nurses Program has helped reduce ambulance wait times by fifty percent since 2022 and is allowing paramedics to respond to other emergency calls.”
“On behalf of Regional Council, I want to express our appreciation to the provincial government for the meaningful increase in funding that has been directed to the Land Ambulance Service Grant in Niagara,” said Jim Bradley, Chair of the Regional Municipality of Niagara.
“With over two million dollars in new funding, these dollars will be used to reduce offload delays at our hospitals and help ensure that our paramedics are on the road serving residents, instead of being delayed at local hospitals. As always, we appreciate the ongoing relationship between the Niagara Region and our provincial partners – this is just one more way we are growing better together.”
The Land Ambulance Service Grant helps support the hiring of additional paramedics, wage and cost of living adjustments and ambulance service operations, while the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program allows paramedics to get back out into the community faster and respond to their next 9-1-1 call sooner.
The Dedicated Offload Nurses Program 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 and the dedication of health care professionals, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by more than fifty percent since its peak in October 2022.
To ensure urgent patients receive critical care sooner, Ontario is also continuing to implement the Medical Priority Dispatch System across the province. The system helps to better prioritize and triage emergency medical calls and dispatch paramedics sooner.
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.