B.C. emergency services 'in a much stronger position' ahead of long weekend surge

British Columbia’s two key emergency agencies say they are prepared for an anticipated surge of demand over what’s traditionally one of the busiest long weekends of the year, with the forecast calling for warm weather. 

The Canada Day holiday is the first since the end of the school year and both E-Comm 911 and BC Emergency Health Services typically see a surge in calls for help as people are injured doing yard work, recreational activities like hiking and boating, as well as in car accidents while driving to vacation destinations.

“We feel we're in a much stronger position this summer than we were a year ago or two years ago during the heat dome,” said E-Comm 911’s vice president of communications, Dave Cunningham. 

He added, however, that call volumes continue to increase with May their busiest on record, and that “as fast as we're hiring, the call volumes continue to grow and that’s something we're very concerned about.” 

BC Emergency Health Services said no one was available to speak about preparations, but sent an email statement insisting their staffing levels “look strong throughout the province and there are currently no concerns with the staffing picture or our ability to meet service targets.”

LABOUR AGREEMENTS SEEM TO BE HELPING

Cunningham pointed to a new collective agreement ratified earlier this year with 911 call-takers as helping shore up staffing levels for the busy summer months, and the president of the province’s paramedics and dispatchers’ union said their new contract has had similar benefits with fewer ambulances left parked due to critical personnel shortages. 

“We have been seeing some of those challenges but not to the levels we've seen in the past,” said Troy Clifford of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C.

After the catastrophic planning failure ahead of the fatal heat dome, BCEHS leadership was overhauled and new funding from the province and the new agreement with frontline staff have seen a lessening of complaints about delayed service, though there are ongoing examples – including a family that got a voicemail when they needed urgent help.

“We still have some challenges just because we haven't fully recruited and retained but we're seeing larger numbers coming into the service,” said Clifford.

FRASER HEALTH ALSO BEEFING UP STAFFING

Both Surrey Memorial and Langley Memorial hospitals have been in the spotlight in recent months, with dire staffing shortages prompting warnings to stay away and seek health elsewhere due to concerns about substandard care, but Fraser Health insists they’ve planned for more patients this weekend.

“We are used to seeing higher volumes of patients at our emergency departments on long weekends and have staffed our emergency departments accordingly,” wrote a health authority spokesperson in an email. “Patients are always prioritized by how severely ill they are when they present to the emergency department.”

That includes patients arriving by ambulance, who aren’t fast-tracked past more serious patients who arrive at hospital on their own. 

Fraser Health, British Columbia’s largest health authority serving some 1.8 million patients, recently added its hospitals to a government website tracking wait times and expected length of stay.