Ontario announced investments into two long-term care programs that it hopes will improve the quality of life for residents and reduce avoidable emergency department visits and hospital stays.
Speaking at Hastings Manor long-term care home in Belleville on Tuesday, Ontario’s long-term care minister Natalia Kusendova-Bashta announced a $3 million investment in the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Plus pilot program.
The program will allow paramedics to begin delivering diagnostic services like bloodwork and ultrasounds to residents.
“We know ER rooms are not comfortable for seniors, so that’s the last place a senior wants to be if they don’t absolutely have to be there,” Kusendova-Bashta tells media.
“So instead, we want to bring paramedics into the homes, and we want to bring the equipment, as well as the proper training for the staff to utilize that equipment, so that some things like urinary tract infections, congestive heart failure and other conditions could be treated right home, right at home.”
Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services will be one of six paramedic services in the province taking part in the program.
Chief Carl Bowker says it will take some time for the program to be implemented as they work to conduct training as well as acquire the necessary equipment.
“It’s going to be a few months in development before we roll it out,” Bowker said.
“We’ll be in communication with the long-term care centres, asking specifically what they need in terms of diagnostic services, where the gaps that we get, we can fill in. So we’re certainly talking with the centres. We’re also talking to other paramedic services that are also engaged in the same project and kind of learning from each other as we build and grow.”
The other announcement made was $6 million in additional money province-wide to continue the Equipment and Training Fund in 2024-25.
In a release, the province says the funds help long-term care homes buy diagnostic equipment and train staff.
It says over $98,000 has gone to the following homes in the Hastings County and Quinte region.
- Stirling Manor purchased an ophthalmoscope/otoscope kit, a vitals monitor and a bladder scanner
- Westgate Lodge purchased an oximeter, an ophthalmoscope/otoscope kit, a doppler device, a vital signs machine and a bladder scanner
- Trent Valley Lodge Nursing Home purchased an electrocardiogram machine and a point-of-care hemoglobin analyzer
