'You're pretty much non-stop': Behind the scenes with Vancouver's paramedics and dispatchers
This is the second story in a three-part series following Vancouver’s police, paramedics and firefighters.
First there was the toxic drug crisis, then the COVID-19 pandemic, then a worker shortage. These compounding crises have put Vancouver's paramedics and dipatchers under unprecedented strain.
CTV News took a ride around the city with Brian Twaites, a paramedic specialist who splits his time between responding to emergency calls and working in communications with B.C. Emergency Health Services. Twaites has been a paramedic for more than 30 years and almost his entire career has spent around Vancouver’s downtown core.
“I was a young teenager and I decided what I wanted to do with my life,” Twaites said. “There was an attraction to medicine but there was also an attraction to being out on the street.”
In his time on the streets, Twaites said the biggest change is the increase in calls for help.
“The night shifts used to be a little bit quieter but you’re pretty much non-stop now,” he said.
In the first weeks of 2023, paramedics have received an average of 750 calls per day in the Vancouver area. Last year's average was 740 a day.
THE TOXIC DRUG CRISIS
Twaites has worked throughout Vancouver, and the Downtown Eastside, since the beginning of the opioid crisis. For first responders, the challenge is keeping people alive when the drug supply is becoming increasingly toxic.
“We’re finding our patients are unconscious and not breathing for a much longer period of time. And because (the drug is) synthetic we have to use sometimes four or five times the amount of narcan that we would normally give to somebody,” Twaites said. “It’s about four to six minutes before brain cells start to die.”
On Jan. 19, 2021, BC EHS set a sombre record with 203 overdose calls -- the highest number recorded in a single day. Twaites said he once attended 26 in one shift. While he managed to resuscitate 22 people, four died.
"Unfortunately, we were unable to resuscitate them,” he said. “It was too late.”
THE DISPATCH CENTRE
All 911 calls in B.C. go to the emergency communications centre, known as E-Comm. Medical calls are directed to Dispatch. The Vancouver dispatch centre covers calls from Pemberton to Boston Bar, the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island. Call-takers are trained to give life saving medical advice over the phone before paramedics arrive at the scene.
Charge dispatcher Melissa Foulds said the team will handle 1,900 calls a day, on average. In 2021 they hit a record of 2,500 calls in a single day.
“I think it was just a summer day,” Foulds said. “It’s a tough job, not everyone can do it.”
STAFF SHORTAGE
The paramedics' union has long sounded the alarm of a staff shortage for both ambulance workers and dispatchers. Last month the president of the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. said nearly half of all ambulance vehicles in B.C.'s Lower Mainland were out of service because there were no no workers to fill them.
According to BC EHS, a quarter of its regular full-time and part-time positions across the province are unfilled. There are a number of reasons for this including a shift away from casual, on-call positions, the addition of more than 1,000 new permanent positions since 2021 and staff illness, including mental health.
The department said it’s also continuing to actively recruit staff from across the country. In 2022, more than 500 new employees went through the orientation process, and there are currently more than 300 new applicants being processed.
Last month the province's ambulance paramedics and their employer reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, following months of negotiations. The deal is yet to be ratified and the current agreement expires on April 1.
Union president Troy Clifford confirmed to CTV News that the deal does include a pay increase.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Full parole granted to man convicted in notorious 'McDonald's murders' in Cape Breton
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
George Washington family secrets revealed by DNA from unmarked 19th century graves
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
'We won't forget': How some Muslims view Poilievre's stance on Israel-Hamas war
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Why some Christians are angry about Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bible
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.