‘This is not acceptable’: Stewart, BC
The mayor alarm of a small BC city on the Alaska border seems to be there because her community does not have access to ambulance service – and she does not know when it is coming back.
North -West of Prince George, about 515 km north -western, about 500 people, Stewart, BC Mayor Angela Brand Dancer said that he came to know about the interruption of service through “informal” channels on Monday.
“Everyone in the community is in darkness when we have ambulance coverage and when we don’t,” he said.
According to the brand Dancer, two paramedics of the community are currently away from work, but have not backfilled.
He said that the nearest ambulance would be sent to a three -hour drive far from Hezlton.
“It’s not acceptable. It’s not going to help you,” said the brand Dansor.
He said that Stewart has an aging population and a popular tourist destination with a strong mining industry, all demographics may require an ambulance.
Stewart’s district made a public safety announcement about disintegration on social media, stating that it could go on “for the underside period”.
Brand Denser said that he had heard that the ambulance service could be restored on July 15, but this date is not official.
He said that there are some “near miss” as a result of service disintegration.
“There was someone who called for an ambulance and waited and waiting and waiting – and then finally decided to bring the person himself to the health center,” he said.
“We have a beautiful health center with excellent employees, but if you can’t reach there … what’s good?”
He said that the community volunteer Fire Fighter Department has neither been trained nor insured to run ambulances, and RCMPs are in the same boat.
He urged the residents to be aware of service disintegration and make a plan in terms of emergency.
‘Not durable’: Paramedics Union
The union of paramedics stated that only two employees are available regularly to employees which are an ambulance 24/7 a safety concern.
“This is not durable at any level,” said Ian Tat, Director of Communications Paramedics, BC’s ambulance.
“Burnout, stress, physical and mental burden that comes with is not able to disconnect – you always have a pager tied to your hip,” he said.
He said that it is difficult to back down the rural areas, especially when the surrounding communities are not necessarily well employees.
Tat advocated full-time paramedic positions, which he said that it would make it easy to recruit employees in rural areas, as unlike the on-call “Pager Pay” system.
“We look at these challenges in the British Columbia in rural and remote areas, and quite clearly even in urban areas.”
Ambulance service response
BC Emergency Health Services, which runs an ambulance service in BC, said it is committed to the service of the entire province.
Media relationship manager Bowen Osoko said in an email statement, “We take the concerns raised by Stewart’s mayor very seriously and we are committed to doing everything to provide consistent coverage in the field.”
“Stewart is part of BCEHS Traveling Paramedic Program (TPP), which brings paramedics to remote communities to fill open innings when needed. We are working with participants in this program and have filled some of the upcoming changes in the stewart. We continue to work to fill the remaining changes.”
However, the brand Dansor said that the response only produces more questions.
“They are not telling us anything that we do not know.
