Toronto Paramedic Association

10/22/2026

ONTARIO FORMS EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT ACTION TEAM TO CUT ER WAIT TIMES

Ontario is launching an Emergency Department Action Team to work with 26 hospitals to cut ER wait times.

The team is backed by $47 million over four years.

By: CTV News

10/21/2026

PROTECT WHAT MATTERS

You protect lives every day. Let us help you secure peace of mind and protect what is rightfully yours.

Call 1-416-362-4567 or submit a contact form and use code PARAMEDIC10 to get 10% off your first bill.

More info:

You protect lives every day. Let us help you secure peace of mind and protect what is rightfully yours.  Call 1-416-362-4567 or submit a contact form and use code PARAMEDIC10 to get 10% off your first bill.

10/21/2026

WHY HEART ATTACKS IN WOMEN ARE OFTEN MISSED IN CANADIAN EMERGENCY ROOMS

For years, the way doctors diagnose heart attacks has largely relied on research and testing standards developed using data that came mostly from men.

Now, new international guidelines are drawing attention to that gap, redrawing the plans for testing and care when women are being seen for possible heart attacks. That’s because heart disease remains the leading cause of death among women worldwide. But how they are assessed and tested is based on a male standard of care, says the world heart federation.

For Karen Humphrey, that gap nearly cost her her life.

Humphrey was 47 years old when she first went to a hospital near her home in Chilliwack, B.C., with symptoms she feared could be a heart attack.

“My chest felt like squeezing. I had pain down my arm,” she recalled. She had training in CPR and recognized symptoms that could be those of a heart attack.

Her doctors tested the level of troponin in her blood, a protein released when the heart is damaged. They said her levels were too low to indicate a heart attack. She was also considered relatively low risk because of her age. She said she insisted on more testing and was offered an angiogram to check out the flow in her heart.

Humphrey said some doctors questioned whether she needed an angiogram, which left her feeling dismissed. “My response was, well, if there’s something wrong, I want to know.”

That angiogram revealed a serious problem: there was a 90 per cent blockage in one of her arteries. Humphrey was treated with medication and a stent to restore blood flow.

Her chest pain returned, and without follow-up from a cardiologist or rehabilitation, she said she headed to the emergency room for help with severe heart spasms. “It felt like you’re being strangled from the inside,” said Humphrey. Doctors continued to check her troponin levels.

After returning to the ER, Humphrey refused to leave until she got more testing.

Humphrey’s experience reflects a growing focus on what researchers describe as a gender gap in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.

By: Avis Favaro
CTV News

10/20/2026

TIMMINS PARAMEDICS COMBAT OPIOID POISONINGS WITH OUTREACH

Police are not the only emergency service dealing with the impacts of the unregulated drug supply.

The Cochrane District Services Board’s Paramedic Service is also responding to a sharp increase in suspected opioid poisonings.

Deputy Chief Seamus Murphy said paramedics have responded to more than 20 suspected overdoses over a three-day period.

“In the last three days, we’ve seen a vast rise in our op**te call volume and opioid poisonings. We’ve had over 20 overdoses in the last three days and no fatalities. Thankfully so far,” said Murphy.

He added that paramedics are also seeing signs that tranquilizers may be present in the unregulated drug supply.

“We’re finding, with the vital signs and the patient findings, that there’s tranquilizers that are tainting the unregulated product right now,” said Murphy.

Murphy told CTV News some patients begin breathing again after receiving naloxone but remain unresponsive or heavily impaired.

The concerns come as the paramedic service continues its REACH mobile outreach program, which is designed to connect with vulnerable people before some situations become 9-1-1 calls.

Murphy said the program has made contact with more than 2,400 people so far, although the figure includes repeat contacts.

The program has also distributed more than 500 naloxone kits and about 1,800 water bottles. Murphy said paramedics have helped mitigate approximately 120 calls and have treated more than 94 individuals through the outreach vehicle. He added the program also helps paramedics determine who requires emergency medical care while connecting others with appropriate community services.

REACH operates daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and is a pilot project involving several community agencies, including Timmins and District Hospital.

The program is scheduled to operate through Nov. 30.

Paramedics continue to remind people that anyone witnessing a suspected overdose should call 9-1-1 and administer naloxone if available.

By: Lydia Chubak
CTV News

10/19/2026

COULD WHOLE BLOOD HELP TRAUMA PATIENTS SURVIVE? ORNGE TEAMS PUT IT TO THE TEST

Video By: Global News

10/18/2026

ONTARIO TODDLER SURVIVES RATTLESNAKE BITE, PARTLY THANKS TO 18 DOSES OF ANTIVENOM

A 15-month-old boy from Sarnia, Ont., is recovering at home after being bitten by a rattlesnake at a family cottage on the Thanksgiving long weekend, requiring treatment at two hospitals and 18 doses of antivenom.

Wells Gladwish was bitten on the thumb around 12:45 p.m. while spending the afternoon with family at their cottage in Cape Chin North, on the Bruce Peninsula.

His father, Matt Huggett, said the toddler was walking near a family bonfire when he came upon a snake and tried to pick it up. The snake bit Wells on the thumb, which began to turn white within about five minutes.

Staff at Lion's Head Hospital needed multiple attempts to start an IV in the active toddler. After a test dose to check for a potentially severe allergic reaction, the team administered 10 vials of antivenom. The hospital had 14 vials in total.

TRANSFER FROM LION'S HEAD TO LONDON

Ornge air ambulance planned a transfer, but Huggett said repeated delays and cancellations left the family waiting as the swelling continued. A nurse at Lion's Head advocated for Wells to receive the hospital's remaining four vials of antivenom and to be transported to London by land ambulance.

“We could no longer wait for Ornge to make a decision,” Huggett said. “They ended up putting him in an ambulance.”

Dr. Rishi Ganesan, a pediatric critical care physician at LHSC's Children's Hospital, credited the Lion's Head team for having antivenom available and administering it quickly.

Ganesan said they sourced additional antivenom and brought it to London under a police es**rt from the Toronto region, bringing the total to 18.

Ganesan said antivenom is derived from horses and can cause a severe allergic reaction, which is why the initial dose must be administered carefully with appropriate monitoring.

He said children do not necessarily need less antivenom than adults. Treatment targets the amount of venom, rather than the patient's size, and children can become seriously ill more quickly because the venom has a greater impact relative to their body size.

By: Travis Dolynny
CBC News

10/17/2026

PARAMEDICS LEARN MORE ABOUT FARM DANGERS

Some Lambton County paramedics recently had an up close look of the dangers farmers face at work.

The Lambton Federation of Agriculture recently hosted an Agriculture Training Day for the paramedics to help them recognize some of the hazards they may find when they go to calls on the farm.

LFA Director Harry VanWieren and Warwick Fire Chief Brad Goodhill reviewed a number of potential hazards, including silo and bunker gas, manure pits, livestock, grain bin entrapments, chemicals and farm equipment.

LFA officials say for many paramedics, agriculture is not something they deal with every day and understanding the risks found around a farm can make a difference when responding to an emergency.

By: THE INDEPENDENT

10/16/2026

NEW EVERY CHILD MATTERS GRT BUS & AMBULANCE WRAP REVEALED

A new Every Child Matters Grand River Transit (GRT) bus and ambulance wrap was unveiled this week, during the Remember Me Walk in Kitchener held on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The design is the work of Indigenous artist Kevin George.

His design was inspired by the resilience of and hope for Indigenous families who continue to thrive despite the trauma of the residential school system.

“The residential school system was designed to strip Indigenous people of these gifts and sever our connections to the lands, waters, and relatives within creation,” said George.

“For generations, Indigenous people have been born into this legacy, grieving this loss. Only now are we starting to see a change. The people are reclaiming those gifts, recovering those relationships, and creating a path for future generations.”

The artwork is featured on one GRT bus and four ambulances in Waterloo Region.

The bus wrap was introduced on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in September 2023 and is now the work of the Reconciliation Action Partnership.

By: Christine Clark
City News Everywhere

10/15/2026

DISPATCHING CHANGES MAY IMPACT LAMBTON COUNTY PARAMEDIC RESPONSE TIMES

Paramedics may take longer to arrive to calls that aren’t life-threatening because of changes coming in November to how Lambton County paramedics are dispatched.

A communications centre in Wallaceburg dispatching paramedics in Lambton and Chatham-Kent is switching to a provincial medical priority dispatch system that prioritizes life-threatening emergencies rather than call sequence, said a county report.

“We would see it as a better system” that “hones-in on the triage level of the callers,” said Stephen Turner, Lambton’s chief of emergency medical services.

“Life-threatening emergencies are prioritized, and the intent is to ensure we have faster responses” in those cases, he said.

“What that means is non-life-threatening emergencies, much less urgent situations, might have to wait longer because our resources are tasked to the higher emergencies,” Turner said.

“For those more routine calls . . . the times might be a little longer.”

There are plans for a public education campaign in the coming weeks to prepare local residents for the changes, he said.

The new system to which the Wallaceburg communications centre is moving is widely used around the world while the current system is only used in Ontario, Turner said.

The system being replaced by the province incorporates “clinical assessment and time-based factors,” the report said.

“In circumstances where a lower-acuity call is delayed because a paramedic crew has been appropriately prioritized to a patient experiencing a life-threatening emergency, the delay represents an intentional and clinically appropriate allocation of resources,” it said.

“We ask the public to understand that we recognize everybody has health care needs,” Turner said. “The urgent ones need to be treated first but we will absolutely make sure we can get to you in what would be considered a timely and appropriate manner depending on the condition.”

By: Paul Morden
Sarnia Observer

10/14/2026

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON NEW TERRACE BAY ONTARIO PARAMEDIC BASE

Construction has started on a new paramedic base in Terrace Bay, Ont., which will replace both the existing Terrace Bay station and the one in Schreiber.

The Township of Terrace Bay and City of Thunder Bay entered into an agreement in August to support the construction of a new paramedic base to serve north shore communities, including Terrace Bay, Schreiber, Jackfish, Rossport, Pays Plat First Nation and several surrounding unincorporated areas.

Under the agreement, Terrace Bay will construct and own the building. It will then be leased to the City of Thunder Bay on behalf of Superior North EMS (SNEMS), which provides services to the city and district.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Monday at the new build at 1006 Highway 17.

“There [are] some issues along the north shore with paramedic retention but with the new modern building, we're confident that that won't happen anymore,” Terrace Bay’s mayor Paul Malashewski said.

The community of fewer than 1,600 people received a $6 million loan from Infrastructure Ontario to support the project, according to Malashewski.

“It's definitely a big investment for the township,” he said.

HIRING STAFF, PREPARING TO OPEN NEXT FALL

The new paramedic station will boast 24-7 staffing as well as three drive-through ambulance bays, a crew area, meeting room, fitness room and living quarters.

The decision to amalgamate the Terrace Bay and Schreiber paramedic stations came from the SNEMS master plan, which determined that being based in Terrace Bay would allow the service to “capture the highest number of calls with the lowest response time,” Kadikoff explained.

“We are in the process of hiring more paramedics. Staffing is very difficult out in the District of Thunder Bay,” he continued.

“The one thing we have going for us is we have a healthy, fresh group of paramedics that are there. They're servicing the catchment area already, so we're going to use the existing complement to staff the new base.”

By: Sarah Law
CBC News