“A community paramedic alongside an occupational therapist responding in tandem to falls-related calls in the urban area in an effort to reduce speedy conveyance. The second pillar involves working with care homes providing education and devices to reduce their reliance on 911.”
The application was in partnership with the Hastings Prince Edward Ontario Health Team with Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services being the lead agency. One-time funding was requested in the amount of $905,000, mostly associated with purchase of equipment for service provision, the acquisition of new technology, and acquiring the expertise of Occupational Therapists. A successful program could then be merged into the existing Community Paramedic mandate.
“In respect to community response teams, these are other organizations that would be vetted by the paramedic service who would be available to respond in rural areas to non-urgent calls. These have already been defined by the dispatch system so we are not sending an ambulance, lights and sirens, based on the information they’ve been provided. So the response is already delayed and a higher acuity call comes in while the response is ongoing then that ambulance would be redirected to the higher acuity call.” Bowker added, “We’re proposing that we look at other organizations that can go, provide some emotional and physiological support while the person waits for an ambulance.to arrive.”
