Medical Priority Dispatch System

The MPDS will optimize DCPS resources, prioritize the most urgent 9-1-1 calls and ensure the right care at the right time for people in the county.

MPDS will provide our community’s paramedics with the best chance of saving lives. In the past, the risk existed that paramedics would be responding to a non-urgent call when an urgent call came in, leaving people in need of critical and sometimes lifesaving care vulnerable to longer wait times.

MPDS will help ensure that calls are prioritized based on urgency, so that Dufferin Paramedic Services has the best chance at saving you or someone you love during a critical health emergency.
Sometimes, this might mean you have to wait longer to receive paramedic care. This does not mean your issue does not matter to DCPS. If you are waiting, it is because paramedics are assisting someone else in the community with an urgent medical emergency, like:

•  Stroke
• Heart attack
• Severe allergic reaction
• Difficult breathing

You will still get help for lower-priority issues like:

• Broken bones without bleeding
• Sprains
• Flu like symptoms

When you experience a medical emergency and call 9-1-1, your call will be directed to dispatchers at the Cambridge Central Ambulance Communications Centre. These dispatchers will ask you more detailed questions than they currently do to determine how urgent your call is, the paramedic resources you require and if any specialized care is required.

With the MPDS, people in Dufferin County calling 9-1-1 can expect more detailed questions from dispatchers. These questions help emergency personnel gather specific information about a patient’s condition to make quick and effective dispatch decisions.

It is important that you provide as many details as possible to dispatchers. The more questions that you’re able to answer will help ensure that the best and most appropriate resources are sent to you, and that you receive the right care at the right time.

If the person in need of medical care is classified as non-urgent after these questions are answered, you will still receive follow-up communication to ensure the situation does not change. Dispatchers will follow up on symptoms so that you get the support and care you need, when you need it.

If the condition worsens, the call will be reprioritized, so care is provided more urgently. If at any time you believe the situation has changed, you should follow up with another call to 9-1-1.

For non-life-threatening conditions, there may be a longer wait time. It is important to remember that longer wait times do not mean that the health and wellbeing of yourself or your loved one is not important.

Dufferin paramedics are always dedicated to providing the highest quality emergency pre-hospital and transportation care that they can. If you experience a longer wait time, it just means that someone else in the Dufferin community requires more urgent medical care during an emergency. For example, if you suspect you may have broken a bone but someone else in the community is experiencing symptoms of a stroke, the next available paramedic will be sent to the person with stroke symptoms.

All calls remain important to DCPS and those who require care will still receive it based on urgency

No. Whether you arrive by ambulance or on your own, a Triage Nurse will ask you several questions and perform a few simple procedures to assess your condition. This will help them decide how urgently you need to be seen by a doctor. This process is known as Triage. Patients are treated based on how urgent their health care needs are.

For Headwaters Health Care Centre triage information visit https://www.headwatershealth.ca/areas-of-care/emergency-care/.