Demand for ambulance services up in Ontario over last decade, study finds
Strum says the data also found a lot of patients were getting treatment for the same problem that was treated earlier. He suggests a change in legislation could address those repeats to alleviate emergency department overcrowding.
“There might be an opportunity in the near future to give paramedics the decision to say, okay, this patient needs to go to the emergency department and this patient could be safely treated at home and referred to a primary care specialist,” Strum said. Last week, the province’s health minister, Sylvia Jones, revealed that part one of a plan to stabilize health care includes expanding programs that help paramedics avoid taking patients to the ER on every call.
A pilot project that was launched in 2020 in more than 40 municipalities allowed paramedics to take patients somewhere other than an emergency room, such as a mental health facility, or to treat them on scene.Initial results show patients accessed care 17 times quicker and 94 per cent didn’t go to the ER in the few days following care, Jones said.
Jones said those 911 models of care are being expanded to more municipalities, but didn’t specify how many in her speech to the Association of Municipalities Ontario conference in Ottawa last Wednesday.