Ontario Hiring Additional Health Care Workers in Durham Region

October 3, 2022

$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 Nurses Program
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. This support
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 PickeringUxbridge and across Durham Region are able to receive emergency 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 hardworking families 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 increases right 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 in Durham 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 for Ajax. “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 in 2022-23,
Ontario is investing an additional $7 million in the program 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 paramedics to 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 with ambulance
offload delays, helping to increase ambulance availability in their
communities.
– In 2021, the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program helped increased
ambulance availability by close to 600,000 hours, which equates to over 68
ambulances returned to service to support municipalities across Ontario.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
– Ontario Introduces A Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and
Recovery
– For resources in multiple languages to help local communication efforts in
responding to COVID-19, visit Ontario’s COVID-19 communication
resources webpage
– Visit Ontario’s COVID-19 information website to learn more about how the
province continues to protect the people of Ontario from the virus.
– For public inquiries call ServiceOntario, INFOline at 1-866-532-3161 (Tollfree in Ontario only)