Like many communities in B.C., Squamish is facing a shortage of paramedics, creating a gap in emergency medical care, according to the union that represents the front-line workers.
On Jan. 25, the provincial president of the Ambulance Paramedics of BC (APBC) told Squamish council about the challenges in providing enough resources to communities across the province.
Troy Clifford offered to work with the District to lobby the province for additional resources, given that the town does not have enough paramedics.
“Having one point for our ambulance in Squamish is definitely well under what communities of that size and demographic would be needing,” Clifford said.
“We need more resources in your community. This is about a conversation with you about how we can work together and support you and help you lobby for and make sure you’re getting the services in your community.”
He said there is one 24-hour ambulance in Squamish, and one secondary call-in ambulance.
That’s the base staffing that has historically been there, he said. However, as a result of a temporary surge in resourcing, there has been an additional temporary unit.
Clifford said the union has been in discussions with the province to make permanent the additional temporary units that have been granted under this mandate
However, the current hiring and recruiting model for paramedics isn’t delivering the way it should be, he said.
“Through the fall, we started seeing increased numbers of out-of-service, with 30% of our staff across the province out of service, because we just don’t have our ability to recruit and retain paramedics,” said Clifford.
“I’ll be blunt — that’s largely because of our precarious on-call model, which is a hybrid in Howe Sound and in Squamish, but also our ability to offer full-time meaningful wages and benefits.”
Meanwhile, there’s competition from the private industry.
People who work as medics, on say, a pipeline project, can be paid somewhere in the ballpark of $500 a day, he said.
The highway also presents another challenge for local paramedics.
“You get a motor vehicle accident on that corridor and road and service down to one ambulance in each community — or other calls going on, or multiple transfers — you can deplete the resources of that whole corridor very quickly, and it’s not easy to get another ambulance in there,” Clifford said.
He said it’s important to look at the corridor communities in relation to each other, as an incident in Whistler or Pemberton can affect how quickly a paramedic team responds in Squamish.
This past summer’s heat dome — which led to the death of about 600 people — exposed the vulnerabilities in the province’s ambulance system, and there was restructuring that occurred following the crisis.
Clifford said this prompted the health minister to create a position for a chief ambulance officer for the BC Emergency Health Services agency, which is now overseen by a board chaired by former VPD chief Jim Chu.
A wave of hiring occurred in the province — though Squamish was not named among the communities receiving new paramedics back when the announcement was made in September.
“We have to have these...tough conversations,” said Clifford. “We need to add additional ambulances out there.”
Mayor Karen Elliott asked where it would be best to direct lobbying efforts, as municipalities often have to deal with several provincial authorities.
Clifford said David Byres of Provincial Health Services; and chief ambulance officer Leanne Heppell, and BCEHS board chair Jim Chu are good places to start.
He also mentioned that from a resource and funding perspective, the senior leadership of the Ministry of Health should be approached.
There was also discussion on how the influx of tourists to the Sea to Sky can affect ambulance service.
“We face that particular challenge on a number of different levels with the province in tourism loads and stuff like impacting parks,” said Coun. Doug Race. “We are familiar with that and they just somehow don’t seem to quite realize that yet.”
Coun. Chris Pettingill said this would be an important discussion to continue and have at the regional district.
What does the employer say?
In a statement to The Squamish Chief, a spokesperson for the BC Emergency Health Services said staffing in the Sea to Sky Corridor has been "greatly enhanced" with new positions added over the past few years. Capacity with these new positions has increased staffing by approximately 40%, according to the spokesperson.
"In 2021, the Squamish station converted to a 24/7 Alpha station with round-the-clock coverage by paramedics in full-time roles. To support this, the station added four new permanent full-time positions with regular pay, schedules and benefits. These positions have all been filled," the statement reads, adding that Pemberton, Whistler and Lions Bay have also converted to 24/7 Alpha stations and added four new permanent full-time positions each.
"Additionally, there is also now an advanced care paramedic based in Whistler, who has specialized training to provide an advanced level of pre-hospital care for both 911 calls and inter-facility transfers."
BCEHS is a provincial service with no municipal boundaries, which means that all of these stations, which neighbour Squamish, work together in providing improved emergency coverage in the area as a whole, the spokesperson noted.
Further, an air ambulance helicopter may respond during serious medical emergencies.
"As well, an additional three ambulances have been added to the Sea to Sky Corridor to respond to patients needing to be transferred to higher levels of care in Vancouver. This eases the demand on local community ambulances being called out of their communities on long transfers," the spokesperson said.
The introduction of these new positions is expected to improve paramedic recruitment and retention in individual communities, as employees have regular shift work with full paramedic pay, according to BCEHS.
"To fill new positions for primary care paramedics and other roles across the province, BCEHS has been undertaking the biggest hiring push in its history," the spokesperson said.
"We recently launched a national recruitment campaign to attract qualified paramedics and dispatch staff to BC to help fill remaining vacancies and to build capacity for the future. More information about careers at BCEHS is available here: bcehs.ca/join-us"
~With files from Jennifer Thuncher/The Squamish Chief
