16
Ottawa paramedics keep pushing for taxi pilot after province's rejection (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 5 months ago by BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca to c/ottawa@lemmy.ca
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A "frustrating" refusal by the province has not weakened the city's resolve to launch a taxis-as-ambulances pilot project, Ottawa's paramedic chief told reporters on Wednesday, explaining that an opportunity may be hiding in what the ministry didn't say.

The City of Ottawa proposed the pilot last autumn as a way to offset the hours paramedics are waiting at overcrowded emergency rooms. These delays lead to "code zero" events where no ambulance is available for calls.

The trial would have allowed paramedics to send patients with non-serious injuries to hospital in a taxi instead.

"That kind of creative solution is exactly what we need," said Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. "So, I was a little bit surprised by the fact that the province wasn't in agreement."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 months ago

There's got to be some sort of middle ground. I'd love to hear why the province takes issue with the proposal.

[-] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 months ago

I'd also be curious why the province takes issue. I think the reason probably is that a need for such a band-aid solution reveals that the system is broken; and maybe implementing the former proves the latter. It is notable that both paramedics and the city are behind this and the province says no. Tensions, clearly

[-] BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

If they are just playing politics with the health and well being of their constituents, then it would be nice if there were consequences for them.

[-] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

BC has somewhat of a middle ground. Low-acuity “waiting room” type complaints are allowed to be delivered to the waiting room by ambulance with some paperwork - no further handover, triage, etc.

In practice it works but isn’t too often used in my experience. But it frees up the ambulance faster in cases where it’s used appropriately.

this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
16 points (100.0% liked)

Ottawa

1009 readers
1 users here now

News, events, discussions, and what not from Ottawa, Ontario.

Municipal website: https://ottawa.ca/

Rules

  1. Be polite and respectful.
  2. Please only post content relevant to the City of Ottawa or to its residents.

Ottawa on the Fediverse:

empty

Ottawa chatrooms:

Please note the following:

* All chatrooms are linked together. If you join one room your messages will be copied to the other platforms.

* Matrix is an open source and potentially distributed chat protocol. The matrix room listed is hosted on matrix.org, a somewhat centralized hub for a lot of currently public rooms. Though the protocol itself is free, libre and open source, the deployment of the protocol resembles a centralized service. This may be fixed in the future with the deployment of independent servers.

* Be aware that both Telegram and Discord are centralized proprietary platforms and do not necessarily protect your rights nor privacy while simultaneously giving power to corporations.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
twopi@lemmy.ca