In terms of the calculation, I don't have a number for you today. However, one of the goals of community paramedic programs—paramedic services across the country, of course—is that we are attempting to offset increase in pressures.
Whether you look at the 40-year to 60-year cohort, or the 60 years and above cohort, we know that with the epidemic for health care need and the baby boomer population, we're having a very difficult time keeping up today. Our offsets are a start to attempt to flatten this tsunami, this wave, of age that's approaching us, as well as the exponential increases in call volume we've experienced over the last 10 years.
I'd be happy to provide the committee with exact dollar values in terms of the estimates of cost savings. But when you look at a single patient who is diverted from an emergency department as a result of not calling 911, receiving appropriate care in the home—prevention of a fall that results in a fractured hip—we know those cost savings are enormous to Canadians when you start to look at reductions of between 60% and 88% in terms of utilization.
We also know these folks are our highest risk group. They are our high flyers. They're the people we know bear down on the health care system at large.