Muskoka Paramedic Services (MPS) met or exceeded all provincially guided response time targets in 2025, according to a new report from Chief JC Gilbert to the District’s Community and Planning Services and Health Services Committees.
Despite strong response performance, the report highlights ongoing challenges with hospital offload delays across the region.
In 2025, paramedics transported 4,716 patients to South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, with 48.4 per cent experiencing offload delays exceeding 30 minutes. At Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, 44.4 per cent of 2,934 transported patients faced similar delays.
Offload delays occur when paramedics must remain at hospital with patients before transferring care, temporarily reducing ambulance availability in the community.
To better align service levels with community needs, MPS has implemented several operational changes. These include redeploying ambulance hours from MacTier to Port Severn, introducing a daily Paramedic Response Unit in MacTier, and adjusting deployment strategies to reduce the migration of paramedic resources toward central areas. A new 12-hour daytime ambulance, operating seven days a week in East Muskoka, is also set to launch in July 2026.
The report notes that while public expectations for paramedic services often focus on rapid response, clinical evidence suggests response times have limited impact on outcomes for most patients. However, for critical emergencies such as cardiac arrest, stroke, and major trauma, rapid response remains essential and can significantly influence survival and recovery.
Muskoka’s response time targets were established in 2013 after changes to Ministry of Health guidelines shifted responsibility for setting benchmarks to municipalities. Under provincial regulations, response time performance is measured from the moment of dispatch notification to the arrival of paramedics on scene, with targets based on the patient’s medical acuity.
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