The province is kicking in nearly $84,000 for Guelph General Hospital to run a program to help with ambulance offload delays.
The $83,958 from the Ministry of Health is part of the province's Dedicated Offload Nurses Program, and is to be used in the 2022-2023 funding year.
How that program will run is still to be determined, as the hospital is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"We are working with our care partners from Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service to design a program that best supports our patients, caregivers, and families," said Melissa Skinner, the vice president of patient services and the chief nursing executive in an emailed statement to GuelphToday.
"We are also working with other organizations in the region that have implemented this program, to learn about what is working well and what areas they would suggest improving. By collaborating we are hoping we can design the best program possible."
Stephen Dewar, the chief of Guelph-Wellington EMS, said the hope is to see the same benefits other organizations have been seeing, with an emphasis on reducing offload times.
"Having a dedicated offload nurse will improve communication between the EMS and emergency department teams and support patients waiting to be offloaded from the ambulance into areas of care at the hospital," he said in an emailed statement.
"It will also free up my team to return to the community and respond more efficiently to emergencies."