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Funding aims to create faster emergency care

September 5, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Ontario government is investing $29,677,813 in Simcoe County to connect people to emergency care faster and increase the availability of ambulances.

In Simcoe County, land ambulance funding is increasing by 6 per cent bringing the province’s total investment in the region to $31,409,881 this year.

This increase in base funding will help ensure municipalities address increased costs so they can continue to deliver timely emergency care.

In addition, to further reduce delays that paramedics encounter when dropping patients off at a hospital, Ontario is investing $245,280 in Simcoe County through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program. This will allow for the hiring of more nurses and other eligible health professionals dedicated to offloading ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.

The program allows paramedics to get back out into the community faster and respond to their next 911 call sooner. It has played a significant role in reducing ambulance offload times and increasing ambulance availability for 911 patients across the province.

“When it comes to emergency care, we know time is of the essence and seconds count,” said Simcoe-Grey MPP Brian Saunderson. “This investment will give our vital front-line emergency care teams even more tools to better treat patients faster and effectively.”

As a result of this program and the dedication of health care professionals, provincial ambulance offload time has been reduced by more than 50 per cent since its peak in October 2022.

To ensure urgent patients receive critical care sooner, the province is also continuing to implement the Medical Priority Dispatch System across the province. This system helps o better prioritize and triage emergency medical calls and dispatch paramedics sooner.

Over the last year, the province has rolled out MPDS to Mississauga, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Ottawa and Renfrew. It is accelerating progress to implement the system at the 15 remaining dispatch sites across Ontario over a year ahead of schedule.

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