Ambulance paramedics in the Okanagan and across B.C. have long been calling for more resources, but the current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is again renewing those calls.
“We’ve added a lot of resources, but we’re still seeing those shortages,” said Troy Clifford, president of Ambulance Paramedics and Dispatchers of B.C.
Clifford told Global News that in the Okanagan, staffing levels are being significantly impacted.
“We’ve seen consistently 30 to 40 per cent of our ambulances out of a service across the Interior, but the province really for that matter,” said Clifford.
“But leading up to the heat dome in the summer, and even prior to that, I mean, it’s progressively been consistent since then. We’re also seeing those challenges in the larger centres, like Kelowna and Kamloops.”
Now the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 is compounding the problem with a surge in cases.
“We’re also starting to see increases in numbers of paramedics and dispatchers off work because of community exposures to Omicron and COVID,” Clifford said. “And that’s putting additional pressure on top of it, for sure.”
The pressure has Clifford sounding the alarm about access to emergency care.
“Any pressures that we’re adding are going to put more pressure on peoples’ access to emergency care and 911 through to the emergency call-taker,” Clifford said.
“With a shortage of call-takers, we can’t answer the calls in a timely fashion and assess or triage, so in (a person’s) time of need, they’re not going to be able to … we’re not going to be able to get to them as quickly.”
In an e-mail to Global News, the Ministry of Health stated that B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) is seeing some higher-than-normal out-of-service levels.
“On average last week, January 3-9, close to 30 per cent of ambulance were unstaffed in the Vancouver Coastal region, and just over 35 per cent of ambulances in the Fraser region were unstaffed,” said the ministry.
“For context, the average out-of-service levels during the spring of 2021 was 18 per cent in Vancouver Coastal region and 19 per cent in the Fraser region.”
The email went on to say that BCEHS is maintaining its focus on responding to the most critically ill and injured patients first by prioritizing ambulance response based on a medical priority dispatch system that’s used around the world.
It also said BCEHS dispatch has a process to upgrade a call to a higher priority response if a patient’s condition worsens.
The ministry said BCEHS is monitoring staffing levels and making daily adjustments as needed.
According to the Firefighters Union in Kelowna, medical calls are up. However, president Jason Picklyk said whether that’s attributed to a shortage of ambulances on the road is hard to say.
Picklyk said this is the time of year when more calls for help generally increase. He also pointed to the ongoing pandemic, which has more patients needing medical care.
Staffing levels at the fire department have not been significantly impacted, but that could change as more people fall ill.
According to the union, plans are being made for that possibility.
Comments