The Region is slated to receive up to $125,000 from the provincial government that will go toward nurses who will specifically receive ambulance patients in hospital emergency departments.

They’ll provide patient care and supervision of five or six patients at a time until the hospital can take over, allowing EMS resources to return to the community.

Regional council passed a motion at its meeting last week to execute an agreement with the Province to receive the funds for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The money aims to address offloading delays, which occur when a hospital is at-capacity and can’t provide a bed for a patient brought in by ambulance. Paramedics must therefore continue providing care to the patient at the hospital, usually in the hallway, preventing the ambulance from leaving and being used for another emergency. They’re sometimes there for up to 13 hours.

At a recent health and social services committee meeting, a couple council members indicated they feel the funding isn’t enough to fix the problem.

The money will fund one full-time equivalent nurse — but isn’t enough for two — and council must decide to which of Halton’s four hospitals the nurse will go, Halton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Bob Nosal told the Champion. He said the worst off-loading issues are at Burlington’s Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital.

Halton’s is one of 14 EMS services in Ontario receiving the funding.