Emergency Health Services

Regulatory Changes to the Ambulance Act

In response to staffing pressures resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, the province is ensuring there are enough paramedics and emergency medical attendants to provide care during a provincial public health emergency. Amendments to Ontario Regulation 257/00 under the Ambulance Act will allow ambulance service operators to hire:

• Primary Care Paramedic (PCP) program college graduates who will be able to work for a longer period of time without passing the ministry's exam as long as they are certified by base hospital physicians to work within their competency and scope of practice and also are provided training by ambulance services.
  
  
• Students enrolled in approved PCP college programs, but have not yet graduated, will now be able to work for certified ambulance services as emergency medical attendants when paired with a certified paramedic. In addition, certified ambulance services will be provided with a six-month transition period to continue to employ PCP program students as emergency medical attendants beyond the date identified as the end of the COVID-19 emergency and future public emergencies under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.
  
  
• Advanced care paramedic graduates who will be able to work without passing the ministry's exam, as long as they are certified by base hospital physicians to work within their competency and scope of practice.

An additional regulatory change waives the annual CPR recertification requirement for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency to allow existing paramedics to continue working.