New regional paramedic master plan moves to council for approval

With a population quickly approaching one million residents and a massive new hospital on the way in north Waterloo, ensuring the region’s emergency services can keep up has become a priority.

The Region’s Community Health and Services Committee met on Sept. 9 and was presented with a comprehensive 10-year Paramedics Services Master Plan. It contains several key recommendations, including enhancement and expansion of facilities, a comprehensive clinical strategy, a new digital strategy and leveraging technological advancements.

Internationally recognized emergency services consultants, ORH LTD, created the plan in collaboration with the paramedics’ leadership.

Chief, Paramedic Services for Waterloo Region, John Riches, told the committee the plan is designed in a way that will allow council to have an idea ahead of time what fiscal resources will be needed.

“The recommendation in the report is that council approves our new master plan and that it is subject to the annual budget approvals process. Approving the plan doesn’t mean everything that’s in the wish-list gets approved automatically. But it does mean we will use this master plan to essentially drive our budget asks in budget years on an annual basis.”

He went on to say that regular review will be another key feature of this plan.

“I think every four or five years, a review of the data and updating our statistics becomes really important, because hopefully we see the results that the master plan is projecting to achieve, but if not, we’ll have to pivot and readjust our strategy.”

Riches believes now is the right time to get a master plan in place. He points to the new regional hospital and particularly its location as something that needs to be carefully planned for.

“Right now, what we enjoy are three busy emergency departments, two very close to one another and then one in Cambridge. And certainly when you remove one of those emergency departments and move it further north in the region that adjusts everything from your response times to your transport times to those facilities and hospitals.”

Following a few questions from committee members, the plan was approved unanimously.

Savings to be had

With the master plan now headed to Regional Council, Riches stopped by The Mike Farwell Show to provide more information about what the plan contains.

He said cost savings were a nice surprise.

“We had an existing master plant that we were following that was set to expire at the end of 2027. And it called for actually more resources than our current analysis with the master plan that just got approved by committee last week, said we needed. So, that’s one success story. When you have new data, analyze the new data and make different decisions.”

Another key feature is the creation of a new paramedic hub, specifically in the Breslau area. The two hubs right now (one in Waterloo, the other near the police headquarters on Maple Grove Rd.) are reaching capacity.

Riches said the Region has more than enough resources to justify a third hub.

“Other services that are bigger than us, that have centrally deployed models like us, have added additional hubs as well. As a way to manage our resources effectively but also have them in the areas we need them in to support our population and our communities.

The proposed budget will now go to Regional Council for a vote, where it is expected to pass.

That vote will take place when council next meets on Sept. 24.

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