British Columbians deserve better emergency medical care

Why is it illegal in British Columbia for doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, search and rescue personnel and other first responders for them to provide emergency care to a sick or injured patient outside a hospital setting to the full extent of their medical training? In this province only B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics are allowed to provide prehospital care beyond basic first aid. When your life is in danger the colour of the uniform of the person coming to your rescue should not matter.

If a serious car crash occurs outside a medical clinic or even a hospital anywhere in BC, it is still illegal today for a doctor to come out and start treating patients even though their lives may hang in the balance. In fact, is still illegal for any hospital staff to simply roll out a gurney and take the patients inside the hospital to treat them – only CUPE 873 attendants may do that in BC and if they are delayed due to the extreme staff shortages their employer imposes on them, too bad for your loved ones.  This law must be changed.

It is our mission at BC HEROS to educate the public about the need to radically change the emergency medical system (EMS) the province now relies upon. Compared to other provinces and countries, BC lags decades behind. There are simply not enough paramedics, especially in smaller communities and rural areas, who have the training to provide medical care beyond basic life support. As a result, people are dying needlessly from time-sensitive conditions or are left with lifelong conditions because they did not receive the appropriate level of medical care in time.

Our rank and file paramedics are not to blame for our woefully inadequate EMS services. They are doing the very best they can with what they are given to work with. Their employer – B.C. Emergency Health Services and the Ministry of Health – still grossly underfunds, understaffs, undertrains, and generally under-resources all aspects of prehospital care in BC. By doing so, they put lives at risk and increase the likelihood of having to pay the cost of longterm medical conditions. The cost of trauma alone in BC, not including heart attacks, strokes or other medical conditions is estimated at $5 billion per year.

Why doesn’t this province invest in a state-of-the-art EMS system to try to minimize those costs? Even before the growing opioid crisis, all EMS resources were stretched beyond the limit. Ask anyone that has waited over 20 minutes for an ambulance recently. These systemic shortcomings become painfully clear when BC’s EMS resources are compared to other provinces and other international jurisdictions. While BC may have one of the largest EMS systems in North America, we certainly don’t have anywhere near the best. We, at BC HEROS, aim to change that and will not rest until everybody who lives, works, and plays in our province has the best possible prehospital care. Critical care should not start when the patient arrives at the hospital door. There is a better way.