page_title: Ottawa Paramedic Service
section_title: Ottawa EMS
hierarchical_section_title: Ottawa Paramedic Service / History / Ottawa EMS
caption_attribution_description: An Ottawa Paramedic Service ambulance parked on Queen Street, during the 2007 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa. In front of the ambulance is a St. John's Ambulance van.
context_page_description: Ottawa Paramedic Service is a uniformed municipal public safety agency providing emergency and non-emergency paramedic care to residents and visitors of city of Ottawa, Ontario. It is the sole, licensed, statutory provider and is operated directly by the city. The Service is an independent third service provider. This means that it is part of the Emergency and Protective Services department of the city but functions as an independent and separate agency from other services. The Ottawa Paramedic Service operates in compliance with legislation and licensing standards overseen by the government of Ontario. It also provides routine, non-emergency transports and emergency paramedic coverage for special events. It is the only service provider permitted to service medical emergency calls in the City of Ottawa.
context_section_description: The Ottawa EMS-SMU came into existence on January 1, 2001, when six separate agencies providing Ambulance and Paramedic care to the then Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton were amalgamated into one service.  St. Lawrence & District Ambulance Services in Nepean, Ontario (SLDAS), Ottawa Carleton Regional Ambulance Service in Ottawa (OCRAS), Rockland/Orleans in Orleans, Ontario (ROAS), Carleton Place/Richmond in Richmond, Ontario, Kanata/Arnprior Ambulance in Kanata, Ontario, and Eastern Medical in Osgoode, Ontario, all became the Ottawa Paramedic Service.  In 2003 the city also assumed control of the communications centre which was, at that time, run by a third party for the Government of Ontario.
  In the 1980s better ambulances and equipment became the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's priority. In the 1990s, semi-automatic Defibrillators and Symptom relief medications administration became the norm for paramedic Scope of practice.  Due primarily to local grassroots efforts (Action Paramedic led by the ACT Foundation), political pressure and a research program called the Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support Studies (OPALS) Ottawa was the first center in Ontario to be selected to introduce fully trained Advanced Care Paramedics (ACP) as part of a Ministry of Health province-wide project.  As we know them today ACPs have been in Ottawa since 1995. Various Advanced Life Support (ALS) response programs had been developed and implemented with much less success over the past 40 years throughout Ontario.  Until 2001, Ottawa had never had a single agency provide comprehensive ACP paramedic treatment in the community.  Prior to then it was typically several services operating under a single communications radio network offering only primary care paramedic (PCP) level of treatment and response.
  The Ottawa Paramedic Service is part of a larger city department comprising Ottawa By-law Services, Corporate Security and Emergency Management and Ottawa Fire Services.  Like many other models the Paramedic Service and Fire Service are sister agencies within a single department, distinct but culturally separate.  A single department overseen by a General Manager with a Paramedic Chief and a Fire Chief each with their mandate serving residents and the community.
caption: An Ottawa Paramedic Service ambulance parked on Queen Street, during the 2007 Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa. In front of the ambulance is a St. John's Ambulance van.
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