Ontario Hiring Additional Health Care Workers in Durham Region

$16.1 Million Investment Will Help Expand Health Care Workforce and Increase Ambulance Availability in 20 Communities Across the Province

Whitby — As part of the work on the government’s Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery, Ontario is investing $16.1 million in 20 communities across the province through the Dedicated Offload NursesProgram to hire additional nurses and health care workers including paramedics, respiratory therapists, and physician assistants, who are dedicated to offloading ambulance patients to receive care in emergency departments.

Through this program, the Region of Durham is receiving $475,222. Thissupport will help ambulances return out to communities faster, enabling them to respond to more 9-1-1 calls with quicker turnaround times.

“Today’s announcement is helping to ensure that the residents of Pickering- Uxbridge and across Durham Region are able to receiveemergency health care services where they need them when they need them,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, MPP for Pickering-Uxbridge. “Thanks to the hard work of these dedicated emergency room nurses, we will see a reduction in ambulance offload delays at hospitals.”

“This funding will enable faster access to health care for hardworkingfamilies in Whitby.” said Lorne Coe, MPP for Whitby. “The hiring of additional health care workers dedicated to offloading patients from ambulances in emergency departments will enable paramedics to return to the community faster, and respond to other 9-1-1 calls.”

“This Investment demonstrates the Ontario PC Government’s commitment to publicly funded universal health care and front-line staffing increasesright here in Durham” said Todd McCarthy, MPP for Durham. “As one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada, it is imperative that access to emergency and acute medical care begins with expanding the health care workforce here inDurham to meet our residents’ needs.”

“Our government continues to invest in publicly funded universal health care and front-line staffing here in Durham” said Patrice Barnes, MPP forAjax. “As staffing concerns continue to grow, it is important that our PC Government continues to support access to emergency and acute medical care through expanding the workforce.”

In addition to this $16.1 million in support for 20 municipalities in2022-23, Ontario is investing an additional $7 million in theprogram for 2022–23 as announced in the 2022 Ontario Budget: Ontario’s Plan to Build.

This additional funding will expand the program to new municipalities while providing additional support to previously funded communities where this program has already been regarded as a success. This funding will be used to enable the recruitment of additional frontline health care workers to improve ambulance patient offload times in emergency departments, improving the patient experience and allowing paramedicsto spend more time responding to 9- 1-1 calls in the community.

 

QUICK FACTS
  • To address health human resources challenges affecting hospitals’ability to staff ambulance offloading positions, eligibility for the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program funding was expanded in January 2022 to include paramedics, community paramedics, respiratory therapists, and physician assistants, in addition to nurses.
  • The government has invested $16.1 million annually in the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program to support municipalities struggling withambulance offload delays, helping to increase ambulance availability in their
  • In 2021, the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program helped increased ambulance availability by close to 600,000 hours, which equates toover 68 ambulances returned to service to support municipalities across Ontario.

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
  • Ontario Introduces A Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stabilityand Recovery
  • For resources in multiple languages to help local communicationefforts in responding to COVID-19, visit Ontario’s COVID-19 communication resources webpage
  • Visit Ontario’s COVID-19 information website to learn more about howthe province continues to protect the people of Ontario from the virus.
  • For public inquiries call ServiceOntario, INFOline at 1-866-532-3161(Toll- free in Ontario only)

 

Shannon Thornton-Weir Executive
Assistant Lorne Coe
MPP Whitby
Lorne.coeco@pc.ola.org
905-430-1141

Safa Khan
Executive Assistant
Peter Bethlenfalvy

MPP, Pickering-Uxbridge
Safa.khan@pc.ola.org
905-509-0336

Doug Ellis
Executive Assistant
Todd McCarthy
MPP Durham
Todd.mccarthy@pc.ola.org
(905) 697-1501

Andrew Ward
Executive Assistant
Patrice Barnes
MPP, Ajax
Patrice.Barnes@pc.ola.org
705-927-3585