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Share this Story : Province rejects city's plan to transport low-risk patients by taxi Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Breadcrumb Trail Links Local News Province rejects city's plan to transport low-risk patients by taxi The city announced the program last October as a way of easing the burden on paramedics and reducing the number of "Level Zeros" when no ambulances are available for a call. Author of the article: Blair Crawford Published May 27, 2024 • Last updated 2 minutes ago • 2 minute read Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account.

Ambulances lined up at The Ottawa Hospital Civic campus. Photo by Tony Caldwell / POSTMEDIA Article content The City of Ottawa’s plan to transport low-risk patients by taxi has been given a red light by the province. Ottawa Paramedic Service Chief Pierre Poirier gave the bad news to the mayor and city councillors in a memo Monday afternoon that the city’s Safe Alternative Transportation Program had been rejected.



Article content “The Ottawa Paramedic Service has now received confirmation that the Ministry of Health has denied the request to permit a paramedic to offer a taxi service to a patient,” Poirier said. “Specifically, they did not approve the use of 9-1-1 paramedics to coordinate alternate transportation options to the emergency department/hospital, including taxi services.” Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement.

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