Some expanded roles for paramedics in the Rainy River District.
The Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board is rolling out a Community Paramedicine program, allowing its paramedics to apply their skills beyond emergency response.
Newly hired coordinator Dave Black says their fifty paramedics will be involved in such things as home assessment visits, patient follow-ups and promotion of prevention programs.
Chief Administrative Officer Dan McCormick says the program, working in cooperation with other health care agencies, in filling some of the service gaps now existing in the district, and is not intended to replace functions now performed by other groups.
McCormick says the extra roles will also be performed while paramedics are in between emergency calls, with those calls taking top priority.
The DSSAB received $165-thousand in one-time provincial funding to get the program going.
