The Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service is the designated provider of emergency Paramedic ambulance service for the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington. The service is dedicated to provide compassionate quality ‘patient focused’ emergency medical care and transport service in Guelph and Wellington County.
The relatively large coverage area serviced by the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service is unique, not only in size but by its population’s unequal distribution throughout the County of Wellington. The county’s 2,600 square kilometre stretch from Mount Forest in the north to Puslinch in the south, east to the Town of Erin and nearly as far west as Listowel. The size and shape of the county make navigating the overall response area very difficult and time consuming, providing for response-time challenges that are unique to the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service.
Ontario provincial legislation requires Paramedic service providers to set target performance levels for the ambulance service. Performance targets are set in the form of a Response Time Performance Plan (RTPP), which establishes a target response time and compliance level to that target for each of the five categories of medical emergencies.
The large geographical area of Wellington County, its distinctive population, and the call volume distribution creates significant challenges in determining the RTPP as it is a service-wide target. The majority of emergency responses are focused in Guelph’s urban boundaries. Responding within city limits, where the population density requires short ambulance travel distances, is fundamentally different than responding to a sparsely populated rural area in the county.
All of the above factors contribute to the uniqueness of the Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Service. This Master Plan addresses these incomparable challenges with unique staffing, station location and vehicle deployment solutions.