A new emergency medical service dispatch system is launching in Chatham-Kent this November.
Chatham-Kent Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is implementing the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) on November 18 to help make sure “the right resource provides the right care at the right time.”
Residents will continue to call 9-1-1 as they do now. Under the new system, dispatchers will ask more detailed questions about a patient’s symptoms or condition to better assess the urgency of the call and determine the appropriate response.
“Currently, present day, it’s a very restrictive four or five questions. In future moving forward, it will be roughly 20 to 25 questions. So they are better able to define what the problem is and then send the most appropriate resource at the right time,” said Operations Manager Matthew Gaudette.
In a report to council, Chatham-Kent EMS highlighted that while calls will be prioritized based on medical urgency, patients with less serious conditions may experience longer wait times for an ambulance during periods of high demand.
Those calls will continue to be monitored through scheduled follow-up assessments and can be reassessed if a patient’s condition changes.
The implementation of MPDS is part of a province-wide mandate from the Ontario Ministry of Health with a full provincial wide rollout targeted for May 2027.