Ontario will be pitching in $31,409,881 for land ambulances in Simcoe County this year, which is about $2 million more than last year.
A joint news release from Simcoe County MPPs promised a six per cent increase to the land ambulance funding for the year, and also $245,280 in funding for dedicated offload nurses.
Last year the county received $1,263,091 for the offload nurses program.
The dedicated offload nurses program was created to hire nurses and other health professionals whose job it is to offload ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments. Ambulances and the paramedics on them have to wait until a patient is transferred to the hospital's emergency department before responding to any more 911 calls.
This funding program is the province's answer to increasing offload times in Ontario, which peaked in October, 2022 with an average of around 31 minutes province-wide.
Data obtained from Ontario Health through freedom of information requests shows the average had come down to about 23 minutes by May, 2024. The median offload time in May in the province is 14 minutes. More recent data was not available
The news release from MPPs Doug Downey (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte), Jill Dunlop (Simcoe North), Andrea Khanjin (Barrie-Innisfil), Caroline Mulroney (York-Simcoe) and Brian Saunderson (Simcoe-Grey) notes a reduction in offload times of "more than 50 per cent" since Oct. 2022, "as a result of this investment and the dedication of health-care professionals."
"I am proud to be part of a government that recognizes this essential need for Simcoe County, and in response, has increased land ambulance funding by 6 per cent,” said Dunlop.
“This vital boost will ensure our communities across the region have access to faster and more efficient emergency care, which can make all the difference in critical situations," Dunlop added.
"Our paramedics do incredible work every day, and this funding will empower them to continue delivering the high level of care that our residents rely on."
The province also notes the implementation of the new medical priority dispatch system is over a year ahead of schedule. The system is designed to improve prioritization and triage of emergency medical calls and to dispatch paramedics sooner.
The medical priority system is already in place in Mississauga, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, and Renfrew, with plans to "accelerate" the installation at the remaining 15 dispatch sites in the province.
