MONTREAL – Always looking for new ways to improve access to care and health services, Quebec is preparing to launch community paramedic projects in the spring of 2024.

During a conference last April at the Première ligne conference in Montreal, the national medical director of the pre-hospital emergency service, Dr. Alexandre Messier, the upcoming opening of a call for projects for CISSS and interested CIUSSS. That call finally came in June and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) told The Canadian Press that facilities had until October 1 to submit their application.

Since then, the MSSS says it has been analyzing the files received with the aim of implementing the first initiatives in spring 2024. The first phase envisaged by Quebec concerns “high-impact projects” to “improve support for vulnerable client groups, including people with…”. chronic illnesses, people struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues, and people experiencing homelessness. We also want to reduce readmissions to the emergency room that could be avoidable.

Nevertheless, a number of objectives were set for this first phase. Our goal is to reduce mortality, provide care tailored to patients’ needs, and better integrate prehospital services with the rest of care, including repatriation.

At the same time, we want to achieve this by reducing the number of patient transports and relieving the burden on hospital emergency rooms.

On this issue, Quebec has already implemented secondary triage and patient assessment practices in several regions of the province. This allows TAPs to take the time to better understand patients’ needs with the help of remote nurses to direct people to the right services rather than necessarily rushing them to the nearest emergency room. close.

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