Waterloo region's paramedics receive more money from region to hire 29 people

Paramedic services in Waterloo region will receive $4.4 million to hire more people as call volumes rise.

Paramedic Chief John Riches appeared before councillors on Tuesday at the community and health services committee meeting to make the pre-budget request. He explained the additional money is needed to hire staff to be in place for Jan. 1 and that process needs to happen before the 2024 budget is approved.

The money will be used to hire the equivalent of 29.3 full-time positions, both paramedics and support staff.

Riches said calls for paramedic services have increased steadily and the service expects to be "well over 72,000 responses" by the end of this year.

Recent investments by the region have helped bring down the number of code yellows — when there are four or fewer ambulances available for calls — or code reds — when there are no ambulances available.

But, he said, as the region grows and the population ages, "by no means are we out of the woods."

Riches said the budget request for paramedics is "similar to taking antibiotics or medications to become healthier."

"If you don't finish the prescription or you don't the full course of antibiotics, you're not going to get well," he said. "Our ask of you is to continue to support the high-growth scenario and continue to support our plan because at the end of this, what we want is a sustainable paramedic response team."

Regional councillors supported Riches' request for funding during the committee meeting. That decision will need to be ratified at the council meeting on Sept. 27.

Provincial funds to help with off-load delays

Riches also announced on Tuesday that the region had received $1.65 million from the province for a designated offload nurse program.

The initiative was created in 2016 by the government to have dedicated nurses handle patients who are not in critical condition but are brought to the hospital in an ambulance. The goal is to get the patient out of the care of paramedics, reducing ambulance off-load delays at hospitals and getting the ambulance back out into the community.

The funding is for one year and will be shared by Grand River Hospital, St. Mary's General Hospital and Cambridge Memorial Hospital. It will mean each hospital will have an offload nurse in the emergency department 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until March 31, 2024.

"We applied for significant funding to increase the designated offload nurse program in the spring … we received to the penny everything we asked for," Riches said. "We're in conversation with our hospital partners to implement that funding now."

Kate Robertson-Cain, nice president of clinical services and chief nursing executive at Grand River Hospital, said in a release that the program is a "win-win for our patients and our community."

"Patients will continue to receive high quality care at our emergency departments and paramedics will get back on the road sooner," Robertson-Cain said.