Toronto Emergency Services EMS

Toronto EMS

Toronto Emergency Medical Services provides pre-hospital emergency care and transportation to a residential population of approximately 3.2 million people, a population that rises to approximately 5 million on most business days.

Toronto EMS operates a total of 41 dedicated EMS stations, geographically distributed across the 246 square miles of the City of Toronto. Emergency service headquarters (which is shared with Toronto Fire Services, but both services operate independently) is located at 4330 Dufferin Street in Toronto. This facility includes administrative offices, some education facilities, the EMS Communications Centre, Fleet Maintenance, Planning and Operational Support, and Materials Management/Logistics. The service is supplemented by well-developed EMS systems in neighbouring communities on three sides, with Lake Ontario providing the southern boundary of the service area. Air ambulance operations are provided within the City of Toronto by Ornge, a privately owned air ambulance contractor, under contract to the Government of Ontario.

Special operations

In addition to regular operations, Toronto EMS staffs a Special Operations Unit, tasked with the provision of EMS services in unusual circumstances. The elements of this unit include:

• Tactical Paramedics - Cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force.
• Marine Paramedics - Cross-trained paramedics staffing the patrol vessels of the Toronto Police Marine Unit, in order to provide support for Toronto Police personnel, EMS services on the waters of Lake Ontario, and EMS service to the Toronto Islands.
• HUSAR - Specially-trained Toronto EMS paramedics operate together with elements of the Toronto Fire Services and Toronto Police Service to provide a joint-service Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team.[13]
• CBRN Paramedics (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear) - Specially-trained Toronto EMS paramedics operate together with elements of the Toronto Police Service and Toronto Fire Services to provide a joint-service Hazardous Materials Response team.
• Public Safety Unit - Cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the Toronto Police Riot Squad.
• Emergency Response Unit - Single paramedics in rapid response vehicles, tasked solely with response to high priority emergency calls.
• Bicycle Unit - Paramedics equipped with mountain bikes, capable of providing either BLS or ALS services in off road areas, or at special events.

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