WATCH: BC Ferries has been going after money from the BC Ambulance Service when it’s forced to hold a ferry for an incoming ambulance. John Daly explains why the policy is under the microscope.
A new rate structure for BC Ferries includes a steep fine for anyone who causes a ferry departure to be delayed. The tariff even applies to the BC Ambulance Service.
The delay of sailing fee can cost the ambulance service as much as $2,000 for causing the ferry to wait–even just five minutes–to get an ill patient to hospital.
Critics say the fines needlessly punish a vital service.
“The ambulance service is trying to get people who are critically ill to hospital to get medical care they need,” said BC NDP Public Safety Critic Mike Farnworth. “The idea of putting this policy in place to charge them punitive fees if the ferry is a few minutes late is wrong.”
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In addition, the decision to hold the ferry used to be made by the ferry captain and paramedics. Now those choices are made by managers at a dispatch centre far from the scene.
When an ambulance with an ill patient needs to catch a ferry, the paramedics would page that ferry to make sure there will be space to load the ambulance and possibly delay the ferry’s departure. But now ambulance dispatch must contact BC Ferries’ Operations Security Centre.
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Denman Island resident Laura Pope is concerned about “the potential for the safety of the people in the ambulances to be compromised by somebody making a decision at a distance.”
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Today it appears questions about the billing policy have prompted some changes.
“I’ve asked our crews and our people in the accounting department not to bill out if the ambulance shows up within 10 minutes of a sailing. So we’re going to give 10 minutes grace,” said BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan.
Corrigan’s review revealed the delay tariff charged to BC Ambulance, the RCMP and BC Hydro was too high.
“It’s going to be fairly significant,” he said. “It’s probably going to be over $50,000 we’re going to have to refund to customers. But it’s the right thing to do.”
*With files from John Daly
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