Grey County paramedics met or exceeded response time targets last year, while answering a record number of calls.
The annual response time report was presented to Grey County Council on Thursday. Paramedics responded to 15,796 total calls in 2024, up over four per cent from 2023.
Kevin McNab, director of paramedic services, told county council that 90th percentile was the best representation of response times and that figure for 2024 was trending in the right direction.
"From the time they get the page to the time they arrive at scene, in 2024, we were there in 15 minutes and 26 seconds." he said. "When you think about the size of Grey County, being over 4,500 square kilometres, you take a minute/minute-and-a-half chute time off that, nine times out of ten, we're there in 15:26. Our goal is to keep that at 15 minutes – our goal is always to get there as quickly as possible – but overall our target has been that 15 minutes."
West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles asked if ongoing emergency department closures were impacting those response numbers.
McNab said it does affect their ability to respond to the next call.
"The longer that we're with the patient, the longer we're tied up and can't respond to the next call," he said. "So if we have to travel further, that's where we've seen in the review is that it does impact us with a longer time to the hospital. We could be taking someone to Mount Forest which is outside of our area and then have to come back, so there's a few things that does cause some issues with us."
In order to improve response times, the County is establishing a new paramedic base in Feversham. An additional daily twelve-hour ambulance shift will also be added in Feversham as of July 1.
That will be followed by bases in Ayton, Thornbury, and Cobble Beach.