The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced provincial funding for community paramedic programs, including two different programs that will benefit residents of Chatham-Kent.
“We are grateful for the support and funding we are receiving from the Ministry,” says Alan DeVillaer C-K Municipality spokesperson. “This is great news for the residents of Chatham-Kent.
Community Paramedicine programs have the potential to improve patient access to care as well as enable better health-care delivery and service coordination for seniors and those in need.”
The community paramedicine programs are designed to complement the current local ambulance services and will not impact the current municipal budget or response times.
The first program will help enable paramedics that are already in the community deliver care to a broader group of patients using their existing skill set and existing EMS system capacity.
The second program will work with existing health-care partners in the community, such as the Chatham-Kent Health Link, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, and the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), to collaborate, develop and implement a dedicated community paramedic.
The programs will leverage similar successful programs Medavie EMS has introduced in other provinces.
