Beginning in December 2025, the Province of Ontario is changing how 9-1-1 medical calls are dispatched in Dufferin County with the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS).

The new MPDS will help ensure that medical help gets to those who need it faster in the community, so that Dufferin Paramedic Service (DCPS) has the best chance at saving you or someone you love during a critical health emergency.

Starting in December, when someone calls 9-1-1 in Dufferin requiring paramedic services, dispatchers will ask more detailed questions to better understand how serious an emergency is. Callers are asked to please stay calm and provide as much information as possible.

The MPDS will help prioritize life-threatening situations, meaning those in urgent need will get help faster.

If a situation is non-life-threatening, there may be a longer wait for paramedic assistance. This is because paramedics are focused on saving lives. Dispatchers will continue to monitor the situation and may call back to check in. If the condition worsens, those experiencing an emergency should call 9-1-1 again immediately.

All calls remain important to DCPS and those who require care will still receive it based on urgency.  Sometimes, this might mean a longer wait for paramedic care. DCPS will prioritize emergencies like:

• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Severe allergic reaction
• Difficulty breathing
• Major trauma

DCPS will still respond as quickly as possible to issues like:

• Broken bones without bleeding
• Sprains
• Flu like symptoms

Learn more about MPDS and what it means for the Dufferin community here.

The expansion of the MPDS is part of the Ontario government’s Your Health plan, to ensure that paramedic services provide the right care at the right time, while easing pressures on emergency departments.

Currently, most Central Ambulance Communications Centres (CACCs) in the province rely on a dispatching protocol known as Dispatch Priority Card Index (DPCI). With DPCI, low priority calls for ambulance services are often over-prioritized, depleting communities of valuable paramedic resources.

The MPDS is designed to help Emergency Medical Dispatchers understand a patient’s level of urgency and triage them accordingly. The system allows Central Ambulance Communication Centres to match available paramedic resources with a patient’s condition – ensuring that the right paramedic resources are appropriately dispatched and patients with life-threatening conditions receive care immediately. It optimizes paramedic resources, prioritizes the most urgent 9-1-1 calls and ensures the right care at the right time for people living in the region.

The MPDS is currently being used in the Toronto, Niagara, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Renfrew, Peel, Halton, Simcoe, York and Kingston regions.

Dufferin County Paramedic Service is responsible for providing 24-hour emergency pre-hospital care and transportation for the County of Dufferin.

The dedicated team of front-line paramedics provide the highest level of evidence-based care available, serving a growing population of over 66,000 residents and the many visitors that come to Dufferin County. Services DCPS provides include Advanced Life Support, the Community Paramedic Program and Public Access Defibrillator Program.

“At Dufferin County Paramedic Service, our goal is to always get the right help to the right people at the right time. The new Medical Priority Dispatch System will support this goal by making sure that the most serious emergencies are handled first in our community. Residents are reminded to stay calm when calling 9-1-1, always provide as much information as possible and if your condition changes, call 9-1-1 again immediately.

-Gary Staples, Chief, Dufferin County Paramedic Service

“Our government is rolling out the Medical Priority Dispatch System in Dufferin County to ensure the right emergency services are sent to the right place, at the right time. By investing in this world-class technology, we are protecting communities in Dufferin County and beyond with state-of-the-art emergency care.”

-Sylvia Jones, MPP for Dufferin-Caledon.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Ball, Manager of Communications
mball@dufferincounty.ca