stations, geographically distributed across the 640 km2 (246 sq mi) 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 communications centre, fleet maintenance, planning and operational support, and materials management/logistics.the service is supplemented by well-developed paramedic services 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. based upon information provided by toronto paramedic services, the service processed in excess of 535,000 calls through its control centre in 2007 (the most recent year for which complete data is available), resulting in 223,769 emergency calls being dispatched. using the ampds system, which triages calls by severity for dispatch purposes, the actual dispatch volume by category for that same year was: echo: 4,311 delta: 76,595 charlie: 31,126 bravo: 64,572 alpha: 36,674 non-emerg: 25,775 ambulance stations district 1 - northwest the district 1 hub is located at 01 station (1300 wilson ave). the northwest quadrant is bounded roughly by steeles avenue to the north, eglinton avenue to the south, yonge street to the east, and highway 427 & mississauga border to the west. station neighbourhood address vehicles deployed notes 01 multifunction stationdownsview-roding-cfb1300 wilson avebls, als, aru/pru, supervisor, logistics and administrativepost 01 & 01-logistics in the same building 11 stationyorkdale-glen park1135 caledonia rdblsn/a 12 stationmount olive-silverstone-jamestown1535 albion rdbls, alsn/a 13 stationwillowridge-martingrove-richview555 martin grove rdblsn/a 14 stationwest humber-clairville321 rexdale blvdblsn/a 15 stationglenfield-jane heights2753 jane stbls, alsshared with toronto fire station 142 17 station/posthumber summit50 toryork drblsn/a 18 stationforest hill643 eglinton ave wbls, alsn/a 19 stationweston2015 lawrence ave wbls, alsshared with toronto fire station 442 district 2 - northeast the district 2 hub is located at 20 station (2430 lawrence ave e). the northeast quadrant is bounded roughly by steeles avenue to the north, eglinton avenue to the south, the scarborough-pickering townline and rouge river to the east, and yonge street to the west. station neighbourhood address vehicles deployed notes 20 stationdorset park2430 lawrence ave ebls, als, aru, supervisorn/a 21 stationwexford-maryvale887 pharmacy avebls, als21 station crews are controlled by the southeast dispatcher. 22 stationscarborough village3100 eglinton ave ebls22 station crews are controlled by the southeast dispatcher. 23 stationdon valley village/henry farm115 parkway forest drbls, alsshared with toronto fire station 115 24 stationl'amoreaux3061 birchmount rdblsn/a 25 stationrouge8500 sheppard ave ebls, alsshared with toronto fire station 212 26 stationwest hill4331 lawrence ave ebls, als, arushared with toronto police 43 division 26 postcentennial scarborough5318 lawrence ave earushared with toronto fire station 215 27 stationmilliken/malvern900 tapscott rdblsshared with toronto fire station 211 28 stationbendale2900 lawrence ave eblsn/a 29 stationagincourt4560 sheppard ave ebls, als, arushared with toronto fire station 243 district 3 - southwest the district 3 hub is located at 30 station (100 turnberry ave). the southwest quadrant is bounded roughly by eglinton avenue to the north, lake ontario to the south, yonge street to the east, and etobicoke creek to the west. station neighbourhood address vehicles deployed notes 30 stationweston-pelham park100 turnberry avebls, pru, supervisorn/a 31 stationkingsway south4219 dundas st wbls, als, arun/a 32 stationhigh park9 clendenan aveblsn/a 33 stationdovercourt-wallace emerson-junction760 dovercourt rdbls, alsn/a 34 stationannex674 markham stblsn/a 35 stationliberty village/cne grounds265 manitoba drbls, special events carts (only during cne)n/a 36 stationwaterfront communities339 queens quay wbls, marine medicshared with toronto fire/marine station 334 37 stationparkdale1288 queen st wbls, alsn/a 38 stationalderwood259 horner avebls, alsn/a 39 stationislington-city centre west155 the east mallblsshared with toronto fire station 432 district 4 - southeast the district 4 hub is located at 42 station (1535 kingston rd). the southeast quadrant is bounded roughly by eglinton avenue to the north, lake ontario to the south and east, and yonge street to the west. station neighbourhood address vehicles deployed notes 40 stationchurch-yonge corridor58 richmond st ebls, alsn/a 41 stationbroadview north / thorncliffe park1300 pape aveblsn/a 42 stationbirchcliffe-cliffside1535 kingston rdbls, als, supervisorn/a 43 stationsouth riverdale126 pape aveblsn/a 45 stationyorkville135 davenport rdbls, alsn/a 46 stationdanforth - east york105 cedarvale avebls, alsn/a 47 stationcliffcrest3600 st clair ave eblsn/a district 5 - special operations the district 5 hub is located at 55 station (5700 bathurst st). district 5 has stations in multiple quadrants and is responsible for toronto paramedic services’ special operations teams, which include: response units, marine unit, critical care transport unit (cctu), cbrne, etf, bike unit, and emergency support units. station neighbourhood address vehicles deployed notes 51 stationhumber summit61 toryork dresu bus, esu truck, bariatric unitlocated in the northwest quadrant but controlled by the senior dispatcher. 53 postyork university heights4330 dufferin stbls53 station crews are controlled by the northwest dispatcher. 54 stationclanton park4135 bathurst stals, cbrne, aru54 station crews are controlled by the northwest dispatcher. 55 postnewtonbrook west5700 bathurst stsupervisorshared with toronto fire station 112. 56 stationnewtonbrook east/bayview woods3300 bayview aveblsshared with toronto fire station 111. 56 station crews are controlled by the northeast dispatcher. 57 stationbridle path-sunnybrook-york mills2075 bayview avebls, alslocated at the rear of sunnybrook health sciences centre. 57 station crews are controlled by the northeast dispatcher. 58 stationwillowdale12 canterbury plals, aru, etf, cctushared with toronto fire station 114. 58 station crews are controlled by the northeast dispatcher. cctu and etf crews are controlled by the senior dispatcher. 59 stationtoronto islands235 cibola aveblsshared with toronto fire station 335. 59 station crew is controlled by the southwest dispatcher. special operations in addition to regular operations, toronto paramedic services staffs a special operations division, tasked with the provision of paramedic services in unusual circumstances. the elements of this unit include: tactical unit - cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the toronto police emergency task force. marine unit - 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 paramedics operate together with elements of the toronto fire services, toronto police service and sunnybrook health sciences centre emergency physicians to provide a joint-service heavy urban search and rescue team. cbrne (chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear & explosive) - specially-trained paramedics operate together with elements of the toronto police service and toronto fire services to provide a joint-service terrorism/hazardous materials response team. public safety unit - cross-trained paramedics providing medical support to the toronto police public order unit emergency response unit - single paramedics in suvs, 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. team also works in concert with the toronto police bike team to provide first response capabilities in the entertainment district on weekend nights. emergency support unit - paramedics trained to operate the service's busses and equipment trucks. these respond to all potential mass casualty incidents (fires, multi-patient car accidents etc...), support for large crowd situations such as festivals and parades as well as responding to all calls involving aircraft at toronto pearson international airport challenges as a result of how canada's universal healthcare system is set up, hospital in-patient beds and emergency departments tend to be severely overcrowded, resulting in difficulties for paramedics transferring the care of their patients to hospital staff in a timely manner. two- to four-hour delays in the transfer of care are commonplace, and six- to eight-hour delays are not unheard of. when this occurs, the service's ability to provide service to emergency calls in a timely manner will often degrade, because of decreased unit availability. multiple stakeholders and various levels of government are currently seeking solutions to this problem, but have, so far, experienced only limited success. the funding for toronto paramedic services occurs as a result of a mixed formula, with fifty percent of funding coming from the municipal tax base and fifty percent from the provincial government. the funding of toronto paramedic services is based upon its census population, not its business day population. as a result, there are always more people requiring ems services than the system has been funded for. language barriers and cultural misperceptions in toronto's multicultural landscape are commonplace for toronto's paramedics. the service subscribes to language line, a simultaneous telephone-based translation service which operates in more than 140 languages. this service is used by emergency medical dispatchers processing 9-1-1 calls, or by paramedics treating patients in the field, on a daily basis. the service also operates its own ethnocultural access program. the 'baby boom' generation is aging. as it does so, all of those 'boomers' become net consumers of health care, driving up demand for services. simultaneously, all of those 'boomers' employed by the service in the early 1970s are reaching the end of their careers and retiring. since subsequent generations are typically much smaller, the service is experiencing difficulty in recruiting suitably trained replacement staff, just as demand for services is increasing. research over the years, the presence of such a large system and call volume, along with a commitment to consistently capture high quality data, has permitted toronto ems to become a 'test-bed' for research projects involving both ems and emergency medicine. this has resulted in a service which is extremely research-oriented and interested in outcome-based medicine. while this has provided any number of research opportunities for physicians and emergency medicine residents through the sunnybrook centre for prehospital medicine (the base hospital), it has also permitted paramedics to function as supporting and as lead researchers, and in some cases, as the principal researcher of their own projects. all research conducted at toronto ems is pre-approved by the university of toronto research ethics committee, and the findings of research conducted at toronto ems, by both physicians and paramedics, has been published in respected, peer-reviewed, international journals. community involvement toronto paramedics are heavily involved in various community programs and partnerships. toronto's paramedics are active participants in the community which they serve. at the 'grass roots' level, toronto's paramedics and emds fund a children's breakfast club, ensuring a nutritious breakfast for the children who live in several of the city's housing projects. paramedics also participate in a variety of other events in the community, including their enthusiastic (and occasionally successful) participation in the dragon boat races staged annually by the city's chinese community. as another little known fact of community involvement by paramedics, all of the floats in the city's annual santa claus parade (one of north america's largest), are driven by volunteers from toronto paramedic services, including both paramedics and a variety of other staff.