Grey County paramedics are consistently answering the call.
For the 2024 calendar year, Grey County paramedics met or exceeded targets for all call types while responding to a record 15,796 total calls for response. Kevin McNab, the county’s director of paramedic services, reported on 2024 response times at county council’s meeting on March 13.
“Grey County is deeply committed to continuously improving our paramedic services,” McNab said. “Our annual review of response time targets has shown that our paramedics have once again met or surpassed our annual response goals, delivering quality emergency care when people need it most.”
Paramedic services has seen an increase in patient call volume of 29.72 per cent over the past five years (an average of 5.94 per cent per year). Despite this rise in calls, response time targets have not increased since they were implemented in 2012.
Each year, Grey County reviews response targets and reports them to the Ministry of Health. The targets are evaluated based on six levels, based on the urgency of the call. Sudden cardiac arrest calls are the most urgent and have a response target of six minutes or less 40 per cent of the time. The remaining five levels are based on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS), which assesses the patient’s immediate need for care.
These range from CTAS 1 calls, which require resuscitation and are life threatening, such as cardiac arrests or major trauma, to CTAS 5 calls, which are less urgent conditions that could be referred to other areas of the healthcare system, such as a small wound requiring stitches or a dressing change. Response time targets also range from eight minutes or less 60 per cent of the time for a CTAS 1 call, to 20 minutes 90 per cent of the time for a CTAS 3, 4, or 5 call.
Grey County paramedics cover an area of 4,500 square kilometres. The location of a call and the nearest paramedic station or available ambulance impact response times. To address these challenges, the county completed a comprehensive deployment review in 2023 to better understand the needs of the county’s growing and aging population across all local municipalities. This review recommends strategies for improving response times in remote areas of the county. This includes adding four additional base locations in Feversham (2025), Ayton (2026), Thornbury (2027) and Cobble Beach (2028). An additional daily 12-hour ambulance shift will also be added in Feversham as of July 1.
More information about paramedic services can be found online at the Grey County website here.