Ambulance response times improve in early months of Winnipeg's new 911 dispatch system

Ambulances are getting to life-threatening emergencies faster since the launch of a five-priority dispatch system around two months ago, according to the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

The city started using the new way of triaging medical calls made to 911 on April 23, replacing an old two-priority system. 

The new approach "makes sense for our system. It actually makes more sense for the patients, too," said Ryan Sneath, the fire-paramedic service's deputy chief of paramedic operations and training.

It's aimed at making sure first responders are available for the most critical cases, while reducing how often emergency vehicles have to race through traffic with lights and sirens.

The move comes with call volumes rising in Winnipeg for both fire and medical-related incidents.

Calls to 911 are now triaged into five different categories, with both fire and paramedic crews going to Priority 1 calls with lights and sirens.

The lower the priority, the less urgent the response.

Sneath said early numbers show ambulances are getting to life-threatening calls faster.

"That time has improved by about two minutes on average," said Sneath.

Prior to the change, ambulances were responding to life-threatening calls in about 16 minutes on average, 90 per cent of the time, he said. That number is down to 14 minutes under the new system.

"Our goal is to see improvements in that," said Sneath.

As part of Winnipeg's integrated response model, trucks with a firefighter-paramedic on board are often first to respond within the national standard of under nine minutes.

Sneath said that remains unchanged under the new dispatch system.

Under the new system, a Priority 1 call is the most time sensitive and yields the biggest response.