Lambton EMS is anxiously awaiting funding approval to continue its successful paramedic pilot project.
Specially trained paramedics have been working with frequent 911 users since last August, to improve their care and guide patients toward other community resources.
Manager Steve Pancino says they've completed over 1,000 home visits since it launched.
"We have funding secured through to about May of this year and we are awaiting funding announcements," says Pancino. "The pilot phase of the program was actually due in large part to funding from Bluewater Health, but that was one time in nature to get the program off the ground. So, we are working closely with the ministry and the LHIN [Local Health Integration Network] and we're hopeful that, given the success of the program to date, the funding will continue on a more sustainable front."
Pancino says over 50 patients have been actively assisted through the program in the past seven months.
"These 52 patients had been responsible for over two hundred 911 calls and over four hundred emergency department visits before the program started," he says. "We dropped the 911 calls by about 58% and dropped the emergency department visits by about 65%."
He says financially it makes sense to continue the program.
"The actual dollars being saved, far outweigh what the cost of the program is to run," says Pancino.
Bluewater Health provided $235,000 for the initial pilot, and an additional $45,000 was secured in direct ministry funding.