ORCON (as with so many government targets) exists so that our political masters can say to the electorate, either: "We set these targets to improve services and they have been met. Aren't we wonderful, please re-elect us", or "We set these targets to improve services but those people (in this case EMTs and Paras) have not met them. So it's their fault that things haven't improved, not ours. Please re-elect us and we will make sure those lazy good-for-nothings work harder to make us look good improve their performance in the future". Politicians like simplistic, quantitative targets because they are easy to measure; unlike qualitative targets which are much more difficult to measure. For their (politician's) purposes it doesn't matter whether or not the thing being measured actually has any bearing on improving whatever it is they claim they want to improve. It's all about presentation, not substance. Good for you, Tom, for trying to tell the suits the truth. It won't do any good, but it's great that you took the opportunity.