PARAMEDICS SOUND ALARM ABOUT NEW LOCAL AMBULANCE DIRECTIVE
Posted on 24 November 2009 by admin
OSOYOOS TIMES-November 25, 2009
By Paul Everest - Osoyoos Times
Local paramedics are voicing concerns that a new directive from their employer, the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS), could cost lives.
Brad Fraser, regional vice president of the Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia Union CUPE Local 873 for Region 3, an area that includes Osoyoos, said the BCAS issued a directive on Nov. 19 that may affect critical response times for emergencies in the South Okanagan.
Right now, he said, there are “duty” ambulances which are located at the local ambulance station and are meant to respond quickly to emergencies such as serious car crashes or heart attacks.
The response time for these ambulances is supposed to be fewer than nine minutes.
Other ambulances, referred to as “kilo” cars, are used for transferring patients between hospitals or between hospitals and doctors’ clinics.
They can also be used as backup ambulances when the duty car is busy.
The operators of the kilo ambulances are on a standby system using pagers and, unless they happen to be at the ambulance station, it could take them between 20 and 30 minutes to respond to a transfer call, Fraser said.
Under the new directive, duty ambulances will be used for transfers first, he said, leaving South Okanagan communities with only call-out ambulance coverage.
Fraser said that means if an emergency call comes in while the duty ambulance is out on a transfer, the response time to that emergency could be up to 30 minutes.
He said that the BCAS is essentially “gambling” that no emergency calls will come in while the duty ambulance is out on a transfer call.
“This is very scary,” Fraser said.
The new directive, he added, was supposed to come into effect Nov. 20 and apply to communities in the South Okanagan and Similkameen regions including Osoyoos and Oliver.
Chad Collington, an Osoyoos paramedic and the shop steward for the Osoyoos ambulance station, said the new directive has not come into effect in the area yet.
Paramedics in the community are worried, however, about what the new directive could mean for people who need an ambulance quickly, Collington said.
“We’re all kind of sick about it,” he said. “If something happens when that (duty) car is out, someone’s going to die.”
For example, Collington said, a person having a heart attack has a good chance of survival if they receive CPR and defibrillation in the first four minutes after the attack happens.
That survival rate goes down by seven to 10 per cent, however, every minute after the first four minutes are up.
Collington said the union has brought up its concerns about the new directive to the BCAS.
Larry Jackson, an executive director for the BCAS in British Columbia’s Interior region, said the directive isn’t really new.
“BCAS is reverting to a former deployment model of having the full-time or standby crews do the first call that comes in whether it is a non-emergency call, an emergency 911 call, an emergency patient transfer or a non-emergency patient transfer,” he said in an email on Nov. 23.
Right now, he added, this model is being used in Oliver and Princeton and will be put into effect in Osoyoos and Ashcroft soon.
Jackson said there will be “no significant change in Osoyoos and Ashcroft since the full-time or standby crews were already responding to first calls unless there were a number of pre-booked patient transfers which would require the on-call ambulances to be staffed.”
Through this ambulance deployment model, he added, the BCAS is hoping to save $50,000 per year “by fully utilizing the full-time and standby crews in Ashcroft, Osoyoos, Oliver and Princeton prior to calling in on-call crews.”
The reason this deployment model is being used here, Jackson said, is because the BCAS has “determined that the probability of receiving an emergency or non-emergency call and a patient transfer call at the same time is less than 40 per cent” in this community.
“It is important to note that only 30 per cent of all BCAS calls require an emergency ‘lights and siren’ response,” he said. “The remaining calls are routine (non-emergency) and patient transfers.”
According to data provided by Collington, Osoyoos paramedics have responded to 47 calls since Nov. 9.
“Of those 47 calls nine have been what we consider serious,” Collington said, adding that two were motor vehicle accidents, two were fatalities, one was a call for a patient with shortness of breath, four were “cardiac calls” and two were for falls of a distance greater than 4.5 metres.
Jackson said if an emergency “pre-hospital” call comes in “while the full-time or standby car was undertaking a patient transfer, BCAS would call in another resource such as the pager on-call crew or assign the call to a car from a neighbouring community.”
“This deployment model was in place previously and is the routine way in which BCAS responds when two 911 calls come in at the same time, during mass casualty events or periods of high call volume,” he said.
Earlier this month, the government passed legislation that ended the paramedics union’s seven-month long strike.
The reason for the legislation, the government stated, was due to increasing stress on the province’s health care system due to the H1N1 flu pandemic.
On Nov. 19, the province appointed an Industrial Inquiry Commission, led by former B.C. Deputy Finance Minister Chris Trumpy, to examine the province’s ambulance service.
The government has stated that the inquiry will look into the service’s collective bargaining structure and other areas including staff recruitment, staff workload, occupational health and safety issues and comparisons of deployment strategies and paramedic compensation with other Canadian jurisdictions.
The commission is to report back to the government by Jan. 15.
The paramedics union has stated that it will not take part in the inquiry as it feels four months is not enough time to look into what it calls a “broken” ambulance service.
news@osoyoostimes.com
Hmmmm, BC Ambulance is more concerned with saving money than saving lives. Sounds like the BC Ambulance managers need to be educated on what exactly an emergency service is there for, the public.
people should take names, when the law suits start, these goverment bureaucrats and beancounters can then explain how saving fifty grand is equivalent to a life. sounds like this is just another “olympic” casualty.
Just look at what Larry Jackson states.
“Through this ambulance deployment model, he added, the BCAS is hoping to save $50,000 per year “by fully utilizing the full-time and standby crews in Ashcroft, Osoyoos, Oliver and Princeton prior to calling in on-call crews.”
It is Ok to put people’s safety at risk because only 30% of the calls Paramedics’ respond to are life threatening?
Another ridiculous move being made by the Liberals so they can pay for their Olympics
What if I’m one of the 40% are you kidding me this BC Ambulance Manager is actually saying someones life is worth less then $50,000.00. Now I know for sure the public needs to stand behind the Paramedics.
$50,000 in an area this big is not worth the lives this policy, old or new, is going to affect. The area in the article includes all the way to Ashcroft and everywhere in between one would assume. That’s a substantial amount of emergency situations awaiting definitive medical care for this miniscule amount of money. Heath Care is a multi million dollar industry so if BC Ambulance is looking to save what amounts to pennies in this case, perhaps they should look to fire one manager in the region, that likely would save double this amount and not leave residents without emergency coverage 40% of the time.
The paramedics union has stated that it will not take part in the inquiry as it feels four months is not enough time to look into what it calls a “broken” ambulance service.
I’d like to correct you on the timing of the IIC report.
It is to be done AND on Falcons desk by Jan. 15, 2010.
Given that, Trumpy has, at most, a month to look into ALL the supposed problems and find solutions. How well researched and impartial do you think this report can be?
BCAS has studies, reports and investigations into the operations of the ambulance service. Some took years to do. They have not implemented ONE recommendation from any of the many reports done. BCAS has spent money for reports, and then ignores them.
Why do you think the paramedics should believe this one will be fair and impartial when it’s being done in such a short time frame? Just a coincidence (and very convenient timing) it’s to be done before the Olympics? Hmmmm
THERES TWO SIDE TO EVERY STORY GIVEN THERES QUITE A NUMBER OF KILO CARS IN OUR AREA AT FIFTY THOUSAND PER CAR AND MULTIPLYED PROVINCIALY THATS A BIG DOLLAR ITEM FOR FALCON TO SWALLOW.IM NOT KNOCKING THE FELLAS IN WHITE PUT WHO TOLD THEM TO TRAIN AS PARAMEDICS WERE THEY PROMISED WORK IN THIS GREAT PROVINCE OF OURS.THE ONLY HOPE IS TO GET ALL THE TRAINING PROTOCOLS YOU CAN AND BE PREPARED TO WORK IN BLOOD ALLEY TO GET FULL TIME STATUS.HAVING DAID THAT I GUESS I BETTER BE PREPARED TO RIDE IN MY OWN BUS .GOOD LUCK FELLAS.BUT UNLESS YOU GOT FIVE RINGS OVER YOU IT WILL BE A TITE CHRISTMASOLYMPICS IS AHEAD OF RESIDENCY.
The fact of the matter is…..
50,000 dollars per station is not worth anyones life.
Im not talking wages, or our compensation right now. That wasnt the point of this article. This is about protecting the people of Osoyoos, which includes my family and friends. Last election this government promised municipalities a 90 second response time, by bringing in the FOX car. Now, to save money, they are sending that car on transfers. Another broken promise.
Health care costs money, plain and simple, BCAS will never, ever be cost neutral, its impossible, unless they start to charge more than 80 dollars. Governments need to understand that, instead of trying to offload us to another branch.
Sounds more like self serving, self interest unions putting up the usual protectionism for the status quo through scare mongering the public. I have a friend in the health authority who told me that the change is because the ambulance service is no longer spending so much time doing routine transfers for hospitals. Ambulances and paramedics were previously like a free service to health authorities and so spent more time moving stable patients between hospitals than responding to 911 calls. Since health authorities now pay for transfers services and can use either bc ambulance or private providers, bc ambulance is being used less and less for routine patient movements and so these changes by bc ambulance are part of that process. Always seems to be that those “sounding the alarm” have some self interest as opposed to these issues being about whats best for tax payers and residents.
There are valid arguments to both sides presented above. But I don’t think that a member of the public truly feels the effect of the cutbacks until they are placed in a situation where they require the assistance of one of these 911 services.
I’ll tell you where I have noticed a difference.
I am a police officer in the South Okanagan and when I call for an ambulance at a major crash site in this area, the ambulance on average takes 10 minutes getting there. (call to dispatch > amb dispatch > amb station > driving time)
Now, if the first ambulance is already dispatched to a call and I call for an ambulance to assist; it can take upwards of 20-30 minutes. Sometimes the next town is called to assist which also only has 1 ambulance ready to roll. (risk to patient severely increases)
Let’s give you another scenario that does impact the South Okanagan towns.
Motor vehicle accident in Osoyoos and a Heart attack victim in Oliver. It’s not often that the 1 staffed ambulance in both towns is busy but it does happen!!
So if there is a 3rd incident resulting in a patient with life-threatening injuries (accidents during snow-storms, etc); the nearest available ambulance is Penticton. Hmmm…driving time in a snowstorm with lights and sirens from Penticton to Osoyoos… well I am sure that life could be saved.
I think the results will speak for themselves in months to come.
In support of the paramedics…fellow 911 member.
another loser move by the liberals to kill our service. Gordo and his gang of pirates would love to see minimum wage and a minivan for an ambulance. Next election I hope everyone remembers what this sack of crud did to this us