Renfrew paramedics mark 5 years for Virtual Triage and Assessment Service

Renfrew County’s virtual triage and assessment centre marking 5 years in the region. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones will be in Renfrew on Thursday afternoon to celebrate five years of Renfrew County’s Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre (RC VTAC).

The program was started in the early days of the COVID pandemic by the Renfrew County Paramedic Service to fill gaps in the healthcare system, specifically addressing the needs of residents without a family doctor.

“We’ve treated over 50,000 individual residents in Renfrew County, knowing we only have 100,000. One in two people in Renfrew County has used VTAC,” said Renfrew County’s chief paramedic Mike Nolan.

It’s a program that was founded in the Ottawa Valley which took pressure off local emergency rooms at a time when hospital ERs were overflowing and experiencing excessive wait times.

“Over the course of the five years, we’ve avoided over 60,000 9-1-1 calls and emergency department visits,” said Nolan.

Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones was in Renfrew Thursday afternoon to celebrating the success of RC VTAC.

“So, VTAC, as you know and heard, is very unique because there was a lot of willing partners that came forward and frankly, that’s it’s secret sauce,” said Jones.

In the years since inception, the RC VTAC has operated immunization clinics, set up permanent community care clinics, offered virtual and in person treatment, and began conducting home visits.

“The world was pretty uncertain,” said Nolan, referencing the program’s early days.

“What it is now, is it’s a safety net for our entire community. When we think about people having the choice of going to the emergency department or suffering in silence, we don’t have that anymore. We have VTAC.”

The proven success of RC VTAC has also convinced the county of Prescott and Russell to adopt the model as well.

“We have a system that was built by design to be spread and scaled,” added Nolan. “We know people in the city of Ottawa are coming up to Renfrew County to use the system. We know our friends in Leeds and Grenville right down to the Saint Lawrence want it.”

Roughly 30 percent of residents in Renfrew County are without a primary care physician. While the program has been successful in addressing the county’s needs, officials say it is not a solution to solving Ontario’s doctor shortage.

“Ontario actually leads Canada in the highest attachment rate. We’re at 90 per cent right now,” said Jones

“We want to get that last 10 per cent for people who want an attachment to a primary care practitioner.”

The Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre locations in Renfrew County can be found in Arnprior, Renfrew, Eganville, Pembroke, and Petawawa.

Residents are able to contact RC VTAC at 1-844-727-6404 24 hours a day, seven days a week.