The Director of Emergency Medical Services for Southern Health says the role of paramedics is continuing to grow to provide better service to people at the scene of a health incident or other calamity. Scott Noble says ambulances are well on their way toward being emergency rooms on wheels as the training of paramedics continues to expand and as they increasingly deliver a high level of care before a patient is transported to hospital.

"Paramedics bring a skill set and a knowledge base to the scene that allows much of the care that would have traditionally been received only in an emergency department, start the minute the ambulance and those paramedics arrive on the scene."

Noble says this means it's not simply a matter of dispatching an ambulance to a scene, but also having the right personnel onboard.

"Getting there fast is important, getting their safely is important, but probably more important is the level of care that you provide when you get there, making sure that the knowledge and the skills that you bring to the call are what you need."

Noble says paramedics have come a long way from the time when they mostly focused on quick transportation of patients to hospital.

"The expansion from many years ago from emergency medical technician to the primary care paramedic to an intermediate care paramedic, and now to advanced care paramedic, certainly, there's been an evolution. Paramedics have always had a skill set and a knowledge base that's allowed them to provide phenomenal care. But we are expanding on it."

Noble says another big change involves having ambulances parked in various locations that are known to have a higher volume of calls so that response times are quicker. He notes Southern Health will soon receive eight new ambulances as part of Shared Health Services' commitment to upgrading equipment. 12 new paramedic positions are also being added in Southern Health to make sure staffing levels are adequate.

Noble says emergency medical services have undergone a huge transformation over the past 20 years.

"Yes, to look over my shoulder, from when I took this in 1999, there has been quite a change, what I see in front of me versus what I see behind me."