Fire first responders in Delta are notified of all life-threatening, time-critical calls.
That’s what B.C. Emergency Health Services is saying in response to a recent letter from Delta Mayor George Harvie and nine other Metro Vancouver mayors who say long delays for ambulance service should prompt the province to reconsider the role of other municipal emergency responders.
“We appreciate the assistance of Delta firefighters when responding to potentially life-threatening and serious medical emergencies. Fire first responders are notified of all life-threatening, time-critical calls (known as Purple and Red in our system),” BCEHS explained in a statement to the Optimist.
“As per direction from the Provincial Health Officer, BCEHS has reduced the number of lower acuity calls that Fire First Responders attend for medical response to reduce the risk of infection, and that direction remains in place. BCEHS is collaborating with provincial fire leadership to monitor this response. This has been in place throughout the COVID pandemic. Fire departments continue to be notified of all vehicle crashes, hazardous materials sites, fire related calls, drowning/near drowning incidents and other calls where their expertise and assistance is needed.”
In a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix last week, Harvie and his fellow mayors said they are concerned about the impacts of staffing shortages at the provincial ambulance service on response times and patient care.
“With staffing shortages impacting response times for the BC Ambulance Service, we want to work with the Province to ensure public safety and that those most vulnerable and in desperate need of our services have access to it in a timely fashion. We are currently dealing with the dual crises of COVID-19 and the opioid crisis and all we’re asking for is the opportunity to provide effective services for our communities,” Harvie stated.
The letter also notes that on Feb. 19, the Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of BC reported that 30 of the 120 ambulances across the Lower Mainland were unstaffed, a situation that can result in significant delays in the provision of emergency medical care to patients when trained fire department personnel are not dispatched as well.
“Last week a patient in Delta with a serious medical issue had to wait 42 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Fortunately in this case, Delta Fire personnel were dispatched, were on scene in less than six minutes, and were able to care for the patient until the BC Ambulance Service arrived,” the letter states.
Delta continues lobbying to have BCEHS notify Delta fire and other fire departments of more emergency medical dispatches.
It’s been a contentious issue since 2015, when Delta rolled out a new program to provide enhanced medical aid by firefighters who received additional training.
Subsequent changes to 911 protocols four years ago resulted in the fire department being notified about medical calls only in certain cases.
BCEHS notes B.C. residents can be assured paramedics continue to get to critical patients and prioritize responses based on the medical priority dispatch system used around the world. That means patients with life-threatening symptoms, including cardiac arrest and breathing difficulties, receive an urgent lights and sirens ambulance response.
“BCEHS is a provincial ambulance service with no municipal boundaries, and when we have unstaffed ambulances we have a strong system in place to send ambulances from the surrounding stations,” BCEHS stated. “To clarify the union’s information of more than 30 ambulances being unstaffed on a weekend shift in February, our staffing records show that we in fact had 17 unavailable due to staffing.
“We have added close to 150 permanent paramedic positions throughout the province during the pandemic and we are adding more positions in the weeks and months ahead that will increase stability in our staffing.”
As far as Delta’s lobbying effort to change the Clinical Response Model, BCEHS, the notes, “The legislation determining who attends medical emergency calls is set by the provincial government under the Emergency Health Services Act…The Act determines who can provide first aid or medical services in emergency situations. As a provincial emergency medical system, it is not possible, nor advisable, to treat the City of Delta separately from all other BC municipalities with respect to firefighter first responder partners.”
