Health committee  Certainly Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, over 10 years ago, assisted the Paramedic Association to identify the national competency profile, so educational institutions now have a standard language of what a paramedic is or isn't. A primary care paramedic is what w

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. We would welcome this committee and this government looking at best practices in Canada. We believe strongly that interdisciplinary solutions are the way of the future. We believe that paramedics have a strong role to play. We also believe that, through t

Health committee  Certainly, we appreciate your acknowledgement of the innovation in Saskatchewan as it relates to the health bus. To use that as an example, from a transportation perspective, we are quite literally pulling the bus into underserviced areas of the population. In Saskatoon, we pull

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Certainly in the case of paramedics, while being the third largest health care provider in Canada in terms of our demographic, we're not on the health human resource planning horizon. We're not currently being studied by the federal government in terms of

Health committee  I think we need to take some chances within the system. We need to take chances amongst the professionals who are providing the services and to look at opportunities to work together like we never have before. There was a question earlier about reaching out to senior population

Health committee  What types of resources, do you mean?

Health committee  No, that's okay. Dr. Carrie asked me earlier about overall health savings. We can certainly speak to that from the perspective of what a reduction of one 911 call means for the system. We're looking at this more globally in terms of overall health economics. It's absolutely signi

Health committee  The Nova Scotia government is quite integrated within its paramedic service. First and foremost, they have their hands on the wheel, if you will. Of course, within their system as a whole, they've been able to maximize the role of paramedics. Not unlike the situation in many othe

Health committee  I'd be happy to speak to that, Madam Chairman. Thank you. On the individual side, the Deep River program is a great example of where often the paramedics are called the oldest child. As you say, they've moved away. They've stepped in as the lightkeeper, if you will, in the commu

Health committee  It would be between $50,000 to $70,000 per year.

Health committee  Great. Our goal is to keep people out of acute-care beds. Of course, much of Canada is rural and remote. Our health care system relies on people coming to services, not receiving services in their communities. In the case of Long Island and Brier Island, for example, the paramed

Health committee  In terms of the calculation, I don't have a number for you today. However, one of the goals of community paramedic programs—paramedic services across the country, of course—is that we are attempting to offset increase in pressures. Whether you look at the 40-year to 60-year coh

Health committee  A primary care paramedic, which is the entry-to-practice level in Ontario, is two years. In much of Canada, it's one. Then, an advanced care paramedic requires an additional year. There are significant cost savings from starting out to becoming a clinician...and of course the c

Health committee  Wonderful. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd be happy to.

Health committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Nolan and I'm the president of the Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada. I'm here today to talk with you about how paramedics can contribute to the health care system, and specifically how community paramedics can