Statement by MPP Andrew Dowie and MPP Anthony Leardi on EMS Services in Essex County
Windsor ― Today we joined Premier Doug Ford, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, President and CEO at Windsor Regional Hospital David Musyj, President and CEO of Erie Shores Healthcare Kristin Kennedy, Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter, Warden of Essex Hilda MacDonald, and other local leaders to discuss how our government is supporting the region to improve patient care by getting paramedics back into communities faster.
Our government has invested nearly $1 million in the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program in the Windsor region which was recently expanded beyond nurses last year to allow for paramedics, physician assistants and respiratory therapists to assist with patient offload. This, combined with the over $22 million the province has provided to the Essex-Windsor EMS for their Land Ambulance Services Grant, is estimated to increase ambulance availability by nearly 120,000 hours in this year. This is in addition to making the newly expanded Learn and Stay grant available for nursing at St. Clair College.
Additionally, last fall Minister Jones was in Essex to announce our government’s expansion of 9-1-1 models of care to empower paramedics to provide more appropriate and timely care in the community, rather than bringing every patient to an emergency department.
We will continue to work collaboratively with local hospital and municipal leaders on innovative solutions to increase ambulance availability and connect our community to more convenient, high quality care, closer to home.”
MEDIA CONTACT
Paul Synnott
Executive Assistant Andrew Dowie, MPP
Windsor-Tecumseh
Ph: 519-251-0437 Cell: 226-724-6978 Email: paul.synnott@pc.ola.org