Serving Ottawa & Eastern Ontario since 2019
Safe, dignified transport to every appointment — and home again.
CuraRide is non-emergency medical transportation for people who need more than a taxi. Trained attendants, wheelchair- and stretcher-equipped vehicles, and door-through-door care from the room you leave to the room you arrive in.
Booking takes about four minutes. Same-day requests welcome, and a companion always rides free.
This is a scheduled, non-emergency service. If someone needs medical help right now, call 911.
- Screened, trained attendants
- Wheelchair & stretcher equipped
- Dispatch answers 24/7
- Hospital & care-home accounts
Start here
Who is the ride for?
Three ways in, depending on who you are. Each one leads to a real person who can confirm the trip today.
-
For myself or someone I care for
One booking, one confirmation call, and an attendant at the door when we said we would be. Tell us about mobility and we handle the rest.
Book a ride -
For a patient I'm discharging or transferring
Committed pickup windows, coordination with the units at both ends, and consolidated monthly invoicing on a facility account.
See partner services -
For an appointment out of town
Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and beyond — quoted as a fixed price, with rest stops and repositioning built into the schedule.
Plan a long-distance trip
What we do
Transport matched to how someone actually moves
Mobility comes first, because it decides the vehicle, the crew and the time we allow. Then we plan the journey around the appointment.
-
Ambulatory
For passengers who can walk short distances but shouldn't travel alone.
Ambulatory transportation -
Wheelchair
Lift- and ramp-equipped vans with four-point securement, for manual and power chairs.
Wheelchair transportation -
Stretcher
Bed-to-bed transfers for passengers who cannot sit upright — with two trained attendants.
Stretcher transportation
And the journey itself
-
Medical appointment transportation
Rides to and from clinics, specialists, imaging, day surgery and follow-ups.
-
Hospital & facility transfers
Discharges, admissions and inter-facility moves, coordinated with the units at both ends.
-
Long-distance transportation
Out-of-town medical travel across Ontario and into Quebec, planned around the passenger.
-
Dialysis & recurring treatment
Standing schedules for dialysis, oncology, infusion and rehabilitation programmes.
-
Specialized support
Bariatric equipment, dementia-aware crews, two-attendant transfers and palliative journeys.
Why families choose us
The parts of the trip nobody thinks about until they go wrong
Most transport complaints are not about driving. They are about waiting, about a curb instead of a door, and about nobody picking up the phone.
-
Door-through-door as standard
We come to the room, not the curb — and we walk the passenger to the clinic desk on arrival, not the lobby.
-
A window you can plan around
Every booking is confirmed with a named driver and a pickup window. If it moves, you hear from us before it does.
-
Equipment for real mobility needs
Hydraulic lifts, low-angle ramps, Broda chairs, bariatric capacity and secured stretchers — not a sedan with a folded chair in the boot.
-
A companion always rides free
One family member, friend or support worker travels with every passenger at no extra cost, on every service we offer.
-
Screened, trained attendants
Vulnerable sector screening, first aid and CPR, safe transfer technique and dementia-aware communication before anyone drives alone.
-
A person answers, 24/7
Dispatch is staffed around the clock, every day of the year. No phone tree, no callback queue, no voicemail at 2 a.m.
Safety and care
Care doesn't start at the hospital doors
It starts in a hallway, with someone deciding whether a transfer is safe to attempt alone. Our standards exist so that decision is never improvised.
-
Screened before the first shift
Every attendant completes a police record check with vulnerable sector screening and a driver's abstract review before they carry a passenger.
-
Trained in transfer, not just driving
Standard first aid, CPR level C, safe lifting and transfer technique, wheelchair securement, dementia-aware communication and accessible customer service.
-
Vehicles inspected and logged
Lifts, ramps, securement hardware and cots are checked on a documented schedule, and every vehicle is cleaned between passengers.
-
Two attendants where it matters
Stretcher trips, bariatric transfers and any journey with a complex transfer plan are staffed with two trained attendants as standard.
How a trip works
Four steps, and one of them is ours
You tell us about the trip. Everything after that is our job, and you should never have to chase us for it.
-
Step 1: Tell us about the trip
Four short steps online, or one call to dispatch. We ask about mobility and care needs so the right vehicle and crew are assigned from the start.
-
Step 2: We confirm the details
A coordinator calls back with the pickup window, the vehicle type, the attendant's name and exactly what the trip will cost. Nothing is booked until you agree to it.
-
Step 3: We arrive at the door
Your attendant comes to the residence or the room, helps with coats, bags, keys and stairs, and settles the passenger with securement checked twice.
-
Step 4: And we bring them home
The return trip is planned with the outbound one. We wait on site for shorter appointments, and we text a named family member on arrival if you ask us to.
Prefer to talk it through? Dispatch is staffed around the clock, every day of the year. A coordinator can quote and confirm a trip in a couple of minutes.
Accessibility
Built around how people actually move
Accessibility is not a feature we added. It is the entire reason the vehicles look the way they do, and it decides how long we allow for a pickup.
- Hydraulic lifts and low-angle ramps on every wheelchair vehicle
- Manual, power, tilt-in-space and bariatric chairs accommodated
- Broda and transport chairs available if you don't have your own
- Two-attendant transfers for stretchers and complex moves
- Passengers travelling with their own portable oxygen are welcome
- Help with stairs, snow, narrow hallways and awkward front doors
- Attendants who speak English and French
- Dementia-aware crews who introduce themselves the same way each time
Something not on this list?
Tell us the specific thing you are worried about — the stairs, the doorway width, the chair that nobody else could take. A coordinator will say plainly whether we can do it.
For healthcare organisations
Discharge shouldn’t wait on a ride
We work with hospitals, clinics, long-term care and retirement residences across the region. Same crews, same standards, with the scheduling and paperwork a unit actually needs.
-
A window you can build a bed plan around
Account partners get committed pickup windows, not open-ended promises.
-
One coordinator who knows your unit
A named contact and a direct dispatch line that skips the general queue.
-
Standing routes for predictable days
Recurring discharge and treatment windows held in advance, every week.
-
One invoice at the end of the month
Consolidated statements, trip-level detail, and documentation on request.
Where we go
Local every day, long-distance when care is somewhere else
Our vehicles are based in Ottawa and run across Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais. Longer journeys are planned trip by trip.
Ottawa & surrounding communities
Our core service area, covered around the clock with same-day availability.
- Centretown & the ByWard Market
- Nepean
- Orléans
- Kanata & Stittsville
- Barrhaven
- Gloucester
- Vanier & Overbrook
- Riverside South
- Manotick & Greely
- Rockcliffe Park
Eastern Ontario
Scheduled service daily, with same-day trips subject to vehicle availability.
- Kemptville
- Smiths Falls
- Perth
- Carleton Place
- Arnprior
- Renfrew
- Rockland
- Casselman
- Hawkesbury
- Cornwall
- Brockville
- Almonte
Outaouais, Quebec
Cross-river transfers to and from appointments and facilities in western Quebec.
- Gatineau
- Hull
- Aylmer
- Chelsea
- Wakefield
- Buckingham
Regular long-distance routes
-
Toronto & the GTA
Treatment centres, transplant programmes and specialist referrals — about 4.5 hours.
-
Kingston
Regional cancer care and tertiary hospital appointments — about 2 hours.
-
Montreal
Specialist and paediatric referrals across the Quebec border — about 2 hours.
-
Peterborough & Belleville
Family reunification and facility relocations — 2 to 3.5 hours.
-
Pembroke & the Ottawa Valley
Rural discharges and returns home — about 1.5 hours.
-
Elsewhere in Ontario & Quebec
Quoted individually, including overnight routes. Call the facility line to plan one.
Don’t see your town? We very likely still go there — ask.
In their words
The people who booked us twice
A first booking is a decision made under pressure. The second one is the review that counts.
-
My mother has dementia and the last transfer she had went badly. CuraRide sent the same two attendants every week after that, and they introduced themselves the same way each time. She stopped being frightened of the van.
Ellen R.
Daughter and primary caregiver · Nepean
-
I have dialysis three mornings a week. They are outside at ten to seven, they know I need the front seat, and they have never once been late. That is the whole review.
Gordon M.
Passenger since 2021 · Orléans
-
As a discharge planner I need a window I can build a bed plan around. CuraRide gives me one and holds it. When something slips they call me before I have to call them.
Priya S.
Discharge coordinator, community hospital · Ottawa
Placeholder testimonials. Replace with real, consented quotes before launch.
Questions people ask
The things worth knowing before you book
No, and this is an important difference. We provide scheduled, non-emergency transportation. Our attendants are trained in first aid, CPR and safe patient transfer, but they are not paramedics and we do not provide clinical monitoring, medication or emergency care en route. If someone needs medical attention right now, call 911.
Two hours is comfortable for a seated local trip, and we take same-day requests whenever a vehicle is free. Stretcher transfers and out-of-town journeys need more lead time — a day for stretchers, about a week for long distance. If your notice is shorter than that, call dispatch anyway. We would rather try than have you cancel an appointment.
It depends on the mobility level, the distance and whether you need wait-and-return. We quote every trip before you confirm it, and the quote includes everything — there is no separate charge for a companion, for stairs on a standard flight, or for the equipment we said we would bring. Call dispatch for a quote in a couple of minutes.
At the door, and usually past it. Our standard is door-through-door: we come to the residence or the room, help with coats, bags, keys and stairs, and walk the passenger to the clinic desk on arrival. For stretcher transfers it is bed to bed.
Provincial health insurance does not generally cover non-emergency medical transportation for people living in the community. Some private and employer benefit plans, extended health plans, veterans' benefits, WSIB claims and long-term care programmes do contribute. We provide itemised receipts and can invoice an insurer or facility directly where an account exists.
One companion travels free on every trip. If more than one person needs to come, tell us at booking and we will send a vehicle with the seats for it where we can.
Let's get them there safely
Tell us about the trip and a coordinator will confirm the window, the vehicle and the cost — usually within half an hour.
Dispatch answers 24 hours a day, every day of the year