Each and every region of British columbia is being effected by Paramedic shortages and inadequate resources. Have a look at the specific issues in your region.
Northern BC
Northern BC is hit particularly hard by the shortages of both ambulance resources and trained paramedics. Rural and remote stations are increasingly unable to staff their ambulances as it has become very difficult to attract new employees, partially due to the high cost of paramedic training in BC. It is also difficult to retain staff in rural and remote areas as the $2.00 an hour pager pay is not competitive compensation in today’s economy.
Resource Shortage
Urban areas, like Prince George, have faced growing call volumes with little or no increase in resources in the last 10 years. This leaves the city of Prince George reliant on nearby communities to help respond to emergency calls in the city. As ambulances from surrounding communities are drawn into the city, the surrounding communities are left with no ambulance coverage for extended periods of time. This increasingly common practice increases the response times to emergency calls as often the responding ambulance is coming from a great distance.
Recent polls indicate that the public is fed up with the deteriorating service being provided by BC Ambulance and there is strong public support for an increase in pre-hospital resources.
Thompson Okanagan - Cariboo
The Thompson Okanagan - Cariboo are hard hit by the shortages of both ambulance resources and trained paramedics. Rural and remote stations are increasingly unable to staff their ambulances as it has become very difficult to attract new employees, partially due to the high cost of paramedic training in BC. It is also difficult to retain staff in rural and remote areas as the $2.00 an hour pager pay is not competitive compensation in today’s economy.
Resource Shortage
Urban areas, like Kelowna and Kamloops, have faced growing call volumes with little or no increase in resources in the last 10 years. This results in the larger centers being reliant on nearby communities to help respond to emergency calls in the cities. As ambulances from surrounding communities are drawn into the cities, the surrounding communities are left with no ambulance coverage for extended periods of time.
This increasingly common practice increases the response times to emergency calls as often the responding ambulance is coming from a great distance.
Recent polls indicate that the public is fed up with the deteriorating service being provided by BC Ambulance and there is strong public support for an increase in pre-hospital resources.
Downsized Communities
Despite the recent announcement that BC Ambulance are finally filling 22 vacant Unit Chief positions around the Province, there are still some communities that have been identified to have their full time paramedic positions eliminated. Merritt, Oliver, and Chase are among the communities BC Ambulance announced will be downsized immediately. With call volumes nearly doubling in recent years, downsizing staffing levels in these growing communities is short sighted and has a negative impact on the morale of the remaining paramedics.
Out of Service
In some rural and remote stations in the Thompson Okanagan - Cariboo, such as Alexis Creek, Logan Lake and Clearwater, there is such a shortage of paramedics that there are days when there is no one available in the community to staff the local ambulance. This creates a situation were the ambulance is out of service and unable to respond to emergency calls until staff become available. In other situations, one paramedic may be available in a community, and may act as a first responder until a second paramedic becomes available to fully staff the ambulance. In both these situations, ambulances from nearby communities must respond to calls in the affected community, which increases ambulance response times. Occasional staffing shortfalls are unavoidable, due to seasonal considerations, injuries, and short notice book-offs. Some communities however, such as Alexis Creek, display a continued trend of staffing shortfalls. A standby wage of $2 an hour is not enough to keep paramedics in these communities.
Kootenays
The Kootenays are hard by the shortages of both ambulance resources and trained paramedics. Rural and remote stations are increasingly unable to staff their ambulances as it has become very difficult to attract new employees, partially due to the high cost of paramedic training in BC. It is also difficult to retain staff in rural and remote areas as the $2.00 an hour pager pay is not competitive compensation in today’s economy.
Resource Shortage
Rural areas, like Kimberley and Cranbrook, have faced growing call volumes with little or no increase in resources in the last 10 years. It is not uncommon to have numerous ambulances in both communities out on ambulance calls with only one remaining ambulance “cross-covering” both communities from a central point. This increasingly common practice increases the response times to emergency calls as often the responding ambulance is coming from a great distance.
Recent polls indicate that the public is fed up with the deteriorating service being provided by BC Ambulance and there is strong public support for an increase in pre-hospital resources.
Downsized Communities
Despite the recent announcement that BC Ambulance are finally filling 22 vacant Unit Chief positions around the Province, there are still some communities that have been identified to have their full time paramedic positions eliminated. Invermere, Fernie, and Castlegar are among the communities BC Ambulance announced will be downsized immediately. With call volumes nearly doubling in recent years, downsizing staffing levels in these growing communities is short sighted and has a negative impact on the morale of the remaining paramedics.
Out of Service
In some rural and remote stations in the Kootenays, such as Greenwood, Midway, Winlaw, and New Denver, there is such a shortage of paramedics that there are days when there is no one available in the community to staff the local ambulance. This creates a situation were the ambulance is out of service and unable to respond to emergency calls until staff becomeavailable. In other situations, one paramedic may be available in a community, and may act as a first responder until a second paramedic becomes available to fully staff the ambulance. In both these situations, ambulances from nearby communities must respond to calls in the affected community, which increases ambulance response times. Occasional staffing shortfalls are unavoidable, due to seasonal considerations, injuries, and short notice book-offs.
Some communities however, such as the ones listed above, display a continued trend of staffing shortfalls. A standby wage of $2 an hour is not enough to keep paramedics in these communities.
Lower Mainland
The paramedics in the Lower Mainland are struggling to maintain reliable ambulance services despite ever exploding population and call volumes. Rural and remote stations up the Sunshine Coast and Sea to Sky Corridor are increasingly unable to staff their ambulances as it has become very difficult to attract new employees, partially due to the high cost of paramedic training in BC. It is also difficult to retain staff in rural and remote areas as the $2.00 an hour pager pay is not competitive compensation in today’s economy.
Increasing Call Volumes
Currently the average response time to emergency calls is between 13-15 minutes in the GVRD. The benchmark set in the BC Ambulance Service Strategic Plan is a 9 minute response time for emergency calls. There are a number of factors that contribute to lengthy response times within the GVRD.
Dramatic increases in call volumes over the last few years without a reciprocal increase in ambulance resources means each ambulance is responding to more calls in a day.
Contributing to this increase in call volumes is the increasing number of inter-facility transfers that comes with more centralized medical services. The number of transfers in a day exceeds the current capacity of the dedicated Transfer Ambulances, and the overflow of transfers must be managed by the emergency ambulances.
Combine these factors with the well publicized waits for beds in Lower Mainland Emergency Rooms, and it is no wonder when emergency calls are made, it is getting increasingly difficult to find an ambulance to respond to the call.
Additional and yet avoidable delays result from having no long-term plan in place to add more resources. Recent polls indicate that the public is fed up with the deteriorating service being provided by BC Ambulance and there is strong public support for an increase in pre-hospital resources.
Resource Shortages
In urban and metro areas, there are not enough ambulances to handle the daily call volumes. It now takes emergency ambulances longer to reach patients in need, often times because the ambulances must traverse many communities to respond to the call for help. The practice of having ambulances respond great distances with lights and sirens on poses increased risk of accidents, and is a safety concern for both the paramedics and the general public.
Patient Transfers
There are a number of reasons for the recent increase in patient transfers. With many specialized medical services being centralized, there is a need to transfer more patients between hospitals. There are also a number of patients who require ambulance transport back to their residences, patients from care facilities, or patients who are bedridden. The demand for transfers on the Ambulance Service is over 300 transfers per day in the Lower Mainland. The BCAS Transfer Fleet currently does approximately 150 of these transfers per day. This means that approximately 150 transfers a day remain to be done by emergency ambulances, contributing to the already lengthy response times for emergency calls. While emergency ambulances are doing these transfers, they are not available to respond to emergency calls in their communities.
Out of Service
In some rural and remote stations on the Sunshine Coast, such as Madeira Park, there is such a shortage of paramedics that there are days when there is no one available in the community to staff the local ambulance. This creates a situation were the ambulance is out of service and unable to respond to emergency calls until staff become available. In other situations, one paramedic may be available in the community, and may act as a first responder until a second paramedic becomes available to fully staff the ambulance. In both these situations, ambulances from nearby communities must respond to calls in the affected community, which increases ambulance response times. Occasional staffing shortfalls are unavoidable, due to seasonal considerations, injuries, and short notice book-offs. Some communities however, display a continued trend of staffing shortfalls. A standby wage of $2/hour is not enough to keep paramedics in these communities.
Vancouver Dispatch Center
Emergency Medical Dispatchers are often the first point of contact in an emergency. Did you know that in the Vancouver Dispatch Center, 911 calls often go unanswered for 3-5 minutes? How can this happen? Well, it happens when there is increased number of emergency calls, and not enough staff to handle the workload. Add to this the fact that the equipment being used in the dispatch center is not actually designed for the nature of the work dispatchers do, and it makes sense that 911 callers are often waiting an unacceptable length of time for their calls to be answered.
Ambulance Stations
There are a number of Ambulance Stations in the Lower Mainland that have expired leases, leases that are due to expire, or simply no longer meet the needs of the Ambulance Service. One of the most dire examples is the Port Moody Ambulance Station.
For the past 50 months the Port Moody paramedics have been housed in a “temporary” ambulance station—a portable trailer. Now the lease is long expired on the land the trailer occupies, and there is no plan for an alternate facility for the ambulance station. Paramedics working out of the trailer are embarrassed by this “temporary” station. It is high time the BC Ambulance Service takes this situation seriously and provides these paramedics with an appropriate, permanent station that the paramedics and their community can feel proud of. North Vancouver Paramedics are watching this situation with concern, as the lease on their station expires later this year as well.
Vancouver Island
Info Coming Soon.