The B.C. government is going ahead with plans to integrate its ambulance service more closely with the health-care system, despite objections from the paramedics' union.
Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon says legislative amendments tabled today will better tie the ambulance service to the health system, especially in rural and remote areas while enhancing the role of paramedics.
Falcon says paramedics will be able to provide a wider range of emergency and non-emergency services without necessarily taking a patient to the hospital emergency room.
When the government announced the plan last month, the paramedics' union said the changes were punishment for a lengthy strike last year.
The changes transfer control of the ambulance service to the Provincial Health Services Authority from the Health Services Commission, putting it under direct jurisdiction of Falcon's ministry.
Paramedics were ordered back to work by the government just before the Olympics, ending a ending a bitter eight-month strike where most were working anyway under essential-services rules.
