Newly announced provincial funding is helping to provide emergency care faster to more people in Chatham-Kent.
The Ontario government is investing $54,600 into the Municipality of Chatham-Kent to hire nurses and other eligible health professionals dedicated to offloading ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.
The funding is part of the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program and is aimed at reducing delays paramedics encounter when arriving at hospitals to transfer patients. The province said the program allows paramedics to respond to their next 911 call sooner, helping to reduce offload times and increasing ambulance availability for patients.
“By supporting dedicated health-care professionals to help offload patients, we’re improving access to emergency care while making better use of our paramedic resources when every second counts,” said Steve Pinsonneault, MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, in a news release. “This investment will help make sure paramedics in Chatham-Kent can spend less time at the hospital and more time where they’re needed most.”
According to provincial officials, investments through the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program have reduced ambulance offload times in Ontario by around 68 per cent since October 2022.
