Community paramedic program being launched in Brandon, Selkirk

Shared Health announced it has launched a community paramedic program in the Brandon and Selkirk regions.

The program was designed to bring community paramedics to people’s homes to offer care and referrals to other services, the health authority said in a press release on Tuesday.

Chris Christodoulou, interim CEO of Shared Health, says the community paramedic program was an important first step.

“This is an incredibly important community outreach program that helps connect patients with care in their home environment,” he said.

Unlike traditional ambulance services, community paramedics do not respond to 911 calls but instead use individual cars known as “single response vehicles” to deliver care to individuals identified as needing care, said Loren Bacala, provincial community paramedic manager at the Shared Health Emergency Response Services.

“Because of this, they have the ability to spend time with identified patients to provide more in-depth care and truly understand their needs, referring them to Allied Health services as appropriate.

“But if that patient chooses not to get transported to the hospital and stays home, those concerns in the past have been not addressed, because there hasn’t been a mechanism for that ambulance-based paramedic to provide that information.”

Bacala also said traditional emergency medical services were “episodic” in nature, and they did not provide continued care, while the community paramedics can offer follow-up and connect them to other care services.

The community paramedics program by the Emergency Response Services is modeled after the Emergency Paramedics in Community program offered by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS).

Scott Gregoire, chief medical officer of the Interlake-Eastern Health headquartered in Selkirk, welcomed the launch of the service in the area. “It contributes to improved access to timely and reliable care and that generally leads to better health outcomes,” he said.

The community paramedics program is also meant to free up capacity of the emergency rooms, which had seen an increase in calls for non-emergency situations, according to Shared Health.

Bacala said by increasing access to care, they hope that trend can be reversed. “We’re hoping to reduce those calls to 911 and those visits to the ER for more minor concerns.”

Christodoulou also said that with the community paramedics programs in place, emergency services could see improvements.

“Over time, capacity to provide emergency care for the most critical injuries and illnesses will also be increased, including in emergency departments and for responding to 911 calls,” he said.

Shared Health says the program will eventually be expanded to other rural and northern Manitoba regions.

–With files from Joanne Roberts, CityNews Winnipeg