Ontario’s Ford Government Increasing Funding for Dedicated Offload Nursing Program in Niagara

$1.8 Million Investment Will Help Expand Health Care Workforce and Increase Ambulance Availability Across Niagara Region

A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara West Ontario Conservative Party MPP Sam Oosterhoff

Posted September 8^th, 2023 on Niagara At Large

THOROLD, Ontario – As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care<https://www.ontario.ca/page/your-health-plan-connected-and-convenient-care>, the Ontario government is investing an additional $51 million into the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program over the next three years to reduce offload delays at hospitals across the province.

From Left to Right. Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West, joins Jim Bradley, Chair of the Regional Municipality of Niagara, at the Merrittville Highway EMS Station in Thorold. Photo courtesy of Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s constituency office

This will provide thirty local municipalities with around 800,000 dedicated hours to support offloading ambulance patients to the emergency department, ensuring paramedics can get back out into the community faster.

Through this investment, the Regional Municipality of Niagara is receiving $1,853,196 in provincial support, more than doubling funding from last year.

This investment will help ambulances return from local hospitals to patients in need across the region, enabling Niagara EMS to respond to more 9-1-1 calls with quicker turnaround times.

“This key funding is critical in supporting our frontline response in local communities 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 provincial support through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program will reduce ambulance wait times, 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 dedicated nursing offload program in Niagara,” said Jim Bradley, Chair of the Regional Municipality of Niagara.

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff (left) with Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley

“With over a 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.”

In addition to the increased funding through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program, the province is also increasing funding of the annual Land Ambulance Service Grant for Niagara from $26,651,963 to $28,065,084.

Across the province, the Ontario government is increasing the Land Ambulance Service Grant to municipalities by an average of six percent in land ambulance funding, bringing the province’s total investment this year to over $811 million.

With Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the province 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.

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