Headquarters Hamilton, ON BLS or ALS Both ALS and BLS Chief Michael Sanderson | Employees Approx. 290 Ambulances 29 Medical director Dr. Michelle Welsford | |
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Hamilton Paramedic Service is the designated service provider for emergency medical services (ambulance) in the City of Hamilton, Ontario.
Contents
Additional vehicles are occasionally added as a temporary measure as demand increases. Hamilton EMS operates from 18 joint EMS/fire stations, and two EMS exclusive operation centres.
Paramedic Stations
Services
Transport Destinations
Hamilton Paramedic Service transports patients to Hamilton General Hospital, Juravinski Hospital (formerly Henderson Hospital), St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton or McMaster Children's Hospital/McMaster University Medical Centre. Patient's transported by ambulance are not accepted at Urgent Care Centres in Hamilton[1]
Occasionally, transportation is made to other hospital destinations due to location and/or if specific services are required
Communications
Hamilton Paramedic Service operates under the direction of Hamilton Central Ambulance Communications Center or CACC "Kaack"). CACC is operated by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Emergency Health Services Branch and is not operated/owned/controlled by the City of Hamilton.
Emergency calls to 9-1-1 are first answered by the local PSAP or Public Safety Answering Point. If an ambulance is required you are then connected/transferred via 9-1-1 to the Hamilton Central Ambulance Communications Center if you are calling locally.
CACC prioritizes the urgency of requests, determine the appropriate destination hospital to meet patient needs and provide callers with pre-arrival first aid instructions. The centres deploy, coordinate and direct the movement of all ambulances and emergency response vehicles within geographic catchment areas to ensure an integrated healthcare system.Computer-aided wide-area central dispatching and technology, such as automatic vehicle location using global positioning systems, help the dispatcher to determine and assign the closest available and most appropriate ambulance to each emergency.