Investments in emergency care reducing ambulance offload times by more than 50 per cent
News from the Government of Ontario
Posted September 12th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
Ambulances parked at the St. Catharines Hospital site in Niagara. file photo by Doug Draper
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.
Hopefully Niagara’s emergency care services is on the list for future funding assistance from the province.
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.
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