Essex-Windsor EMS wants dispatch control and more paramedics to meet growing calls for service

Windsor-Essex EMS is expecting a heightened demand over the next few years. CTV Windsor’s Sanjay Maru has more.

Essex-Windsor EMS is calling for improvements and changes to staffing levels, dispatch operations, and patient care strategies to address growing demands for service throughout the next five years.

Paramedics locally received 65,000 calls for service in 2024. According to the Essex-Windsor EMS (EWEMS) Master Plan Update being presented Wednesday evening to Essex County Council, that number could rise to 90,000 by 2030.

James Jovanovic, president of CUPE Local 2974, which represents paramedics in the region, said the growing demand comes as no surprise.

“In fact, the projections for 2023 were much lower than what the reality ended up being,” he said.

“I believe there was a 3.9 per cent projection of call volume increase. It ended up being closer to 10.”

The report attributes the increase in call volume to the local population increasing in numbers and getting older.

To maintain current response times, the report recommends hiring 44 full-time and 22 part-time paramedics by 2030.

However, Jovanovic pointed out a provincewide shortage of new paramedics, which could complicate recruitment efforts.

“The province as a whole is kind of seeing a shortage of 400 medics per year,” he said.

“The Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs projects that we need upwards of 1,200 paramedics per year, whereas the colleges are only producing 700 graduates.”

Jovanovic also raised concerns about retention, noting that paramedics in Ontario earn significantly less than other emergency responders.

“We’re paid roughly 20 per cent less than other emergency responders. That’s a significant deficiency,” he said.

“If it’s not addressed at some point in the future, it’s going to have significant impacts over the long run.”

The report also highlights ongoing issues with offload delays, noting that Windsor-Essex has the second-highest ambulance offload times in Ontario.

In 2019, paramedics met the eight-minute response target for urgent calls 76 per cent of the time. That number dropped to 65 per cent by 2024.

Without new investments, EMS adds, that figure could fall to 51 per cent by 2030.

Jovanovic said prolonged offload times have ripple effects throughout the system, impacting patient care and paramedic well-being.

“With that increased burnout of staffing, then you’re going to have increased sick calls, and then you’re going to have to make up for losses internally that weren’t necessarily as easy to calculate as, let’s say, a population increase,” he said.

One key proposal in the report is a pilot project that would allow Essex-Windsor EMS to take over ambulance dispatch, a model already in use in Toronto, Ottawa, and Niagara.

“It simply allows for a more centralized, coordinated control where you might otherwise have some gaps in communication between two different and separate entities,” Jovanovic said.

“By centralizing that under one umbrella, the hope is that it would be more efficient.”

The report also suggested implementing more “treat and release” and “treat and refer” strategies, which would allow paramedics to assess and care for patients on site instead of always transporting them to the hospital.

This, EMS officials said, could help reduce strain on ambulance availability and hospital resources.

Essex County councillor Sherry Bondy supports the proposal, saying local control over dispatch could improve response times.

“It actually makes a lot of sense because then our own staff would be familiar with the calls that are coming in,” Bondy said.

“They would know better how to triage where ambulances are going and what type of services are needed in the particular call.”

Bondy, the mayor of the Town of Essex, said she fully supports investing in anything that can improve efficiencies for EMS, calling it “money well spent.”

“Anytime [the EMS chief] comes to county council, my opinion is: Where do we write the check?” added Bondy.

“We’re talking about community safety. We’re talking about emergency services for our loved ones.”

While Bondy acknowledges financial constraints exist, she said the county has been ramping up advocacy efforts to secure provincial support.

“The province wants us to grow,” she said.

“They’ve set aggressive targets and goals for us to build more homes, but it wouldn’t be responsible for us to build more homes without healthcare that matches that housing and the demand of new people coming into our community.”

Council will review the EMS report and its recommendations at Wednesday’s meeting, but no immediate decisions are expected, with further discussions on implementation and funding anticipated in the future.