Simcoe County Paramedic Services is hoping the addition of six new paramedics, as well as the redeployment of existing resources, can help improve response times and ease the pressures felt by paramedics from staff shortages.
Additional pressures were identified in several catchment areas within the county, Sarah Mills, director and chief of Simcoe County Paramedic Services, explained in a report to councillors providing an update of the changes to the paramedic services deployment plan during the committee-of-the-whole meeting on March 14.
The updates include the six new paramedic resources approved as part of the county’s 2023 budget deliberations, as well as reallocation of existing hours for improved response times and efficiencies.
Mills noted staff have continued to evaluate trends and priorities across the region, information that has resulted in the recommendation of an additional realignment of resources to “fully maximize greater efficiencies” across the various municipalities.
“Further to the 2023 budget deliberations, staff are recommending the addition of a 12-hour ambulance — four new paramedic resources — to the existing Collingwood station to support two 24/7 ambulances from this location to meet the increased call demand,” she stated in the report.
Given the increased call demand seen in the Innisfil and south-end Barrie catchment area, staff are also recommending the assignment of the remaining two new resources to the existing 12-hour rapid response unit in Alcona, creating a 12-hour transport ambulance.
“With these proposed changes, the additional resources will improve coverage in Innisfil, Barrie, Collingwood, and Essa (Township), given the frequent draw by the Angus resource into the adjacent municipalities due to the seamless principle,” Mills stated in the report.
Jane Sinclair, the county's general manager of health and emergency services, explained to councillors that the recommendations for the four allocations in the deployment plan to Collingwood are based on increases in call volume and ongoing assessments of response time.
“In the Collingwood area in particular, it is an area we have noted an increase in calls," Sinclair said during Tuesday's meeting. "We have a modelling tool (that) we input things into it -— such as population, call volumes, projected population increases and demographics and station locations across the region — so the recommendations for Collingwood in this case would be based on trending we’ve observed and anticipate in the future based on increased call volume."
By extending service to include another 12-hour ambulance, staff have projected it will allow the service to be able to meet the increasing trends and call volume that it has been seeing.
Mills explained to councillors during the meeting that the high call volume, in conjunction with staff shortages, has created a health human resource issue that is being been experienced across the industry throughout the pandemic.
“We do have to be mindful of how hard we are running our staff … and keep an eye on the deployment plan," she said. "We put through recommendations like this so that we can relieve some of that stress and burden for them because they are running really hard and have had a tough couple of years through the pandemic.”
Wasaga Beach Mayor Brian Smith acknowledged the pressures paramedics face, but was concerned the deployment plan seemed to focus more on the county's south end.
“If you drive around the county, you see fire departments with apparatus sitting there, police departments with parking lots full of cruisers, but you very rarely see an ambulance bay with an ambulance, so I completely understand what the manager is saying about burnout and calls,” he said. “(We) are going to add more ambulances to south Barrie, Bradford West Gwillimbury.
"And I have no issues with Bradford West Gwillimbury, because they’re part of the county and their coffers are coming here constantly … but here we are again adding more ambulances to the Barrie area," Smith added. "Unless something has changed, I believe Barrie still reaps the benefits of the best response times for ambulances in the county by far."
With residents in other communities waiting an average of 10 to 15 minutes for an ambulance, Smith said he struggles with the idea of the other 16 member municipalities subsidizing Barrie with respect to paramedic and other services.
By placing the ambulances in these areas which typically see a higher call volume, Sinclair explained it also helps nearby municipalities that do not see as many calls for service.
“It gets very complex in terms of the movement and our deployment plan," she said. "There is something called a ‘seamless principle’ in paramedic services, and that requires the closest ambulance to respond to the call. It’s not dictated by paramedic services or the county — it’s managed by ambulance dispatch."
Placing the 12-hour rapid response unit in Barrie and increasing to a 12-hour ambulance in Alcona, benefits Essa Township more than those two municipalities, Sinclair added.
“When there’s a call … if there’s no ambulance available in those municipalities, dispatch doesn’t care about boundaries — they will pull the closest ambulance and Essa Township, because of proximity, gets pulled into those areas," she said. "So in this case, Essa is actually the net benefactor for those resources.
"We know putting ambulances in certain other municipalities, they will get pulled because of where the calls are."
