The province is spending $3.1 million a year to improve the speed of medical transfers, and ambulance wait and offload times.
Michelle Thompson, Health and Wellness Minister, said Thursday the 28 new employees won’t be paramedics, but “non-paramedic” drivers. They’ll work in teams with paramedics on patient transfers.
Thompson said being able to transfer patients between hospitals, and other medical facilities, more quickly will have positive knock-on effects.
“Which will free up beds, which will allow us to admit people who are waiting in emergency departments and then, of course, that then frees up stretchers for offload.”
Thompson said the funding will double patient transfer capacity, from 668 to 1337 hours per week.
She said it also frees up paramedics to attend 911 calls.
“We’re very hopeful that it will be one of the levers, yes, that will improve paramedic response times.”
Thompson said it isn’t the nail in the coffin to fix healthcare, but it’s a good start.
She said, mixed with other upcoming measures, it will hopefully improve healthcare dramatically over the next few years.
