About

In 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH) began investing $6 million annually to support the development of 30 Community Paramedicine (CP) Demonstration Projects across the province. This funding was allocated on the recommendation that the MOH invest in the development of community paramedicine as part of the 2012 Living Longer, Living Well Report by Dr. Samir Sinha (Provincial Expert Lead, Ontario Seniors Strategy) that informed the development of the Government of Ontario’s subsequent actions. The MOH subsequently appointed Dr. Sinha to co-chair the MOH’s Community Paramedicine Steering Committee with Mr. Michael Nolan, (Chief, County of Renfrew Paramedic Services) to advise the MOH on which community paramedicine projects to initially and continually fund, and around the development of an Ontario Community Paramedicine Framework and Toolkit.

In 2017, at the conclusion of a successful three-year demonstration period, the MOH decided to provide its 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) with base funding to continue the development of community paramedicine programs across every region of Ontario and transferred to them the responsibility of oversight of these ongoing activities.

At the invitation of the LHIN CEO’s, and with the support of the MOH and the former MOH Community Paramedicine Steering Committee, Dr. Sinha and Mr. Michael Nolan proposed the creation of the Ontario Community Paramedicine Secretariat (OCPS) to support the ongoing development of community paramedicine across Ontario in the same way as the LHINs have done to support the ongoing development of rehabilitation services through the creation of the Rehab Care Alliance.

Their proposal would see the former MOH CP Steering Committee that had LHIN, MOH, Paramedic Chiefs and frontline paramedicine and other expertise as members recruited as a part of a re-constituted Steering Committee to guide the work of the Secretariat on behalf of Ontario’s LHINs.

The OCPS was officially launched in 2018.