SASKATCHEWAN — The province's ambulance system is under growing strain, as rising call volumes, staffing pressures and hospital delays continue to stretch emergency medical services across the province.
New data from the Saskatchewan Health Authority shows that while response times have remained relatively steady, they are not improving fast enough to keep pace with demand.
“While there currently is no standard Canadian response time targets, Saskatchewan measures response times that many other jurisdictions use: the time between when a call is made to when an ambulance arrives on scene,” explained SHA spokesperson James Winkel.
Those benchmarks are set at under 30 minutes for rural areas and under nine minutes for urban centres.
In 2024–25, approximately 72 per cent of rural emergency calls met that 30-minute target, unchanged from the previous year. In urban communities, including Regina and Saskatoon, about 64 per cent of calls were reached within eight minutes and 59 seconds, a slight drop from 65 per cent in 2023–24.
The data highlights a system holding steady on paper, but facing mounting pressure behind the scenes.
“Provincially EMS call volume has increased by 45 per cent from 2019–20 to 2024–25,” Winkel noted.
That surge in demand is forcing difficult adjustments across the province. When ambulances are already tied up on calls, response coverage often shifts.
“When the local ambulance is on a call, the response to an emergency may come from a neighbouring community or an ambulance that is in proximity to the call,” he added.
Another major pressure point is what happens after paramedics reach the hospital.
“Patients transported to emergency departments by EMS are triaged by level of acuity and are cared for until they can be transferred to nursing staff at the hospital,” Winkel pointed out.
Those offload delays can leave ambulances waiting at hospitals instead of returning to service, reducing availability for incoming emergencies.
To respond to these challenges, the SHA indicates it is working through a multi-year plan to stabilize EMS services and support frontline staff.
“In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the SHA continues to make progress on a multi-year EMS stabilization plan focused on addressing staffing challenges in several communities,” Winkel emphasized. “This work reflects a broader commitment to strengthening ambulance availability, supporting frontline teams and improving service reliability for Saskatchewan residents.”
Part of that effort includes new approaches to managing 911 calls.
“In Fall 2025, the SHA introduced an Emergency Communication Nurse System within the Medical Communication Co-ordination Centres in Regina and Saskatoon,” he said. “This system supports the appropriate further assessment and triage of lower-acuity EMS calls and creates opportunities to redirect some patients to alternate care settings.”
The goal is to keep ambulances available for life-threatening emergencies while ensuring patients still receive appropriate care.
The province is also expanding community paramedicine programs to reduce strain on the system before emergencies happen.
“These programs enable paramedics to provide proactive, community-based care such as wellness checks, chronic disease monitoring and post-discharge follow-up,” Winkel explained. “This helps reduce avoidable emergency calls and emergency department visits.”
At the hospital level, efforts are also underway to ease congestion and improve patient flow.
“SHA continues to take immediate action to address capacity pressures by expanding acute care capacity and improving flow,” Winkel stated. “This includes SHA leaders connecting daily with teams, including emergency department staff and physicians.”
Despite those efforts, the reality remains that demand is rising faster than the system can fully absorb.
Ambulances are travelling farther, waiting longer and responding to more calls than ever before. For patients, that can mean delays during the most critical moments of their lives.
Still, the SHA maintains its focus remains clear.
“The SHA remains committed to meeting the needs of patients as close to home as possible, including during periods of increased demand, and ensuring that our care teams are properly supported in these high demand situations,” Winkel affirmed.
