'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
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
LIVE UPDATES Critical infrastructure 'successfully protected': Jasper park officials
Jasper National Park officials in an update said all critical infrastructure in the townsite has been 'successfully protected, including the hospital, emergency services building, both elementary and junior/senior schools, activity centre and wastewater treatment plant.'
Canadian Olympic Committee removes women's soccer team's head coach over drone scandal
The Canadian Olympic Committee has removed women's national soccer team head coach Bev Priestman over a drone scandal, according to a press release from the organization.
Yukon woman narrowly escapes bear attack, credits hair clip
A woman in Yukon believes her hair clip helped save her during a bear attack.
Prince William's 2023 salary revealed in new report
Newly released financial reports show that William, the Prince of Wales, drew a salary of $42.1 million last fiscal year, his first since inheriting the vast and lucrative Duchy of Cornwall.
'I was just shocked': Jasper lodge owner on seeing property destroyed by wildfire
On Wednesday night, the owner of Maligne Lodge in Jasper, Alta., was shocked to receive a photo of her business engulfed in flames.
Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond likely has Indigenous DNA: report
The Law Society of British Columbia says a DNA test shows a former judge and Order of Canada recipient accused of falsely claiming to be Cree "most likely" has Indigenous heritage.
U.S. authorities have arrested 'El Mayo' Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel
Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of another infamous cartel leader, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas on Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza: 'I will not be silent'
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden.
'She led it the whole way': 18-year-old B.C. woman leads hikers to safety in Jasper National Park
As fire threatened people in Jasper National Park, Colleen Knull sprung into action.