Paramedics see surge in 'serious' calls, further straining ailing healthcare system

By bus stop on busy Vancouver street On a summer night for a lying unresponsive elderly man, dispatchers urgently dispatched both a regular ambulance and an advanced medical ambulance, a specialized unit for critically ill patients.

``It was a difficult situation. There were other patients on the scene who also admitted they needed help," said Dave Leary. He was one of the paramedics on call, and he was the spokesman for the BC ambulance paramedics.

"High stress level"

This situation was considered Code Purple. This is the most serious designation that ambulance dispatchers have given to life-threatening calls. Emergency Medical Services, which oversees BC ambulances, uses a six-color scale to determine which calls should receive priority response time. Code Reds ("immediate life-threatening or urgent") is his second most serious.

According to new data provided to BC Postmedia, these purple and red phones have been used in BC for the past three years. steadily increasing. Hospital emergency rooms are temporarily closed due to severe shortages of nurses and other health care workers, and healthcare is already crumbling. Another factor that puts more strain on the system.

And as these critically ill patients are transported by ambulance to the hospital,the situation is increasingly overwhelmed and resources are scarce, resulting in an urgent response by doctors and nurses. is required.

"We've seen a very large increase in purple and red phones, and they're all going to emergency rooms," Health Secretary Adrian Dix recently told The PostMedia. “So currently [ER] staffing is impacted not only quantitatively but also qualitatively.”

Purple and red for 2019/2020 accounted for 31% of all ambulance calls, rising to 34% by 2021/2022. There were 14,169 purple calls and 144,773 red calls in the most recent fiscal year.

The Department of Health increased funding for BC's overwhelmed ambulance service,while BC paramedics and claims to appreciate the government's new investment. The state is still short of 1,000 paramedics. President Troy Clifford said about half of them are needed in urban areas and the rest in rural areas.

This left his 30% of the rig unmanned one day, and some rural areas were temporarily without local ambulances, union leaders said. To tell.

For example, on July 17, a woman from Ashcroft who lived on the same block as the then-closed local hospital The nearest ambulance was nearly 30 minutes away. Red is a real challenge.

"Purple is immediately life-threatening, including cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and asphyxia due to total obstruction. …heart chest pain, With severe shortness of breath, a partially obstructed airway, severe bleeding, and an unconscious patient, Red is the next down.” of his union.

“The phone can be the most difficult call, and it is the most resource-intensive call.

While purple and red calls are on the rise, so are less urgent calls.

BC Emergency Medical Services (BCEHS) statistics show that ambulance calls increased steadily from 2016 to 2019, with a slight decline due to pandemic restrictions in 2020. , increased again in 2021, averaging over 1,500 calls daily. 2021 wasthe busiest year on record, according to the union, and he looks to be even busier in 2022. According to Clifford, call volume jumped from 1,700 to 2,000 in just a few days this year.

His E-Comm, BC's emergency communications center, said that all 911 calls (including police, fire, and ambulance) this year compared to 2021. He predicts a 12% increase. E-Comm spokeswoman Jasmine Bradley said in June, "We are seeing the largest number of emergency calls we have experienced in 23 years of service."

Overdose crisis, rising number of COVID-19 positives, population growth and aging, mental health issues, shortage of family doctors, extreme weather events, busy highways for people to go on postponed vacations It is included. Overdoses alone will see nearly 100 calls toparamedics perday in 2021, a new record.

Overdose victim with horrified mother administering first aid when ambulance arrives said Clifford, an Osoios paramedic who recently attended the life-threatening call of

“(Purple and red)are among the best of the acute calls. calls have increased.”

The Ministry of Health said in a statement, B. C. There may be a shortage of 1,000 ambulance crews, or her one-third of his ambulances may be sitting unattended.

Instead, the ministry said the ambulance budget was raised to $559 million this year, from $424 million in 2017, when the NDP was elected. rice field. In rural and remote areas, he added 500 new full- and part-time paramedic jobs, and at least 125 in urban areas, from when calls surged and services collapsed during the heat dome in 2021. has been added. A ministry statement if all those positions are filled.

The ministry also added 42 new dispatch positions and 22 new ambulances. Nine of them are on the move and the rest are expected to arrive by the end of this year, the statement said.

There is a new process to deploy staff more quickly in the event of a "dramatic surge indemand" to support paramedics, the ministry said.

Ian Tate, regional vice president of the union said. "I think the senior executives are trying. Do you think it's a little too late? Yes, I think they should have been here years ago.

"The last two years. The number of recruits has not kept up with the number of retirees.…The government has added ambulances statewide, and the problem is there aren't enough people physically behind the wheel of an ambulance."

As a result, the people of British Columbia are bearing the brunt. The 85-year-old Langley woman waited her two-and-a-half hours for her ambulance on July 18 in "excruciating pain," according to her daughter-in-law's tweet. Her 91-year-old Chilliwack woman also said she waited two-and-a-half hours for an ambulance in January, her grandson posted on her social media.

Abbotsford Ground Zero Ministries, which provides assistance to the homeless, has seen people suffering in the streets due to poisons and extreme heat, waiting 30 minutes for medical assistance to arrive. increase.

The ministry acknowledged longer response times, but said it has made efforts to reduce them. According to the statement, last month the highest priority calls were answered in urban areas, where he met his goal of less than nine minutes, "however, the median response time for patient events, coded in purple and red. The value has increased slightly," he added.

Ambulance services are creating new measures to help patients with minor injuries to reduce the burden on paramedics and emergency rooms.

These changes are urgently needed.

Due to a shortage of paramedics, one day recently the community of Clifford in Osoyoos came to live without an ambulance. This dilemma has been repeated elsewhere, including Quesnel,Kitwanga, Agassi, his Boston bar, and union leaders. Say. Even in urban areas,Vancouver recently experienced a shortage ofambulances, and areas such as Burnaby and the Fraser Valley experienced longer response times.

"Last weekend our personnel were completely down all weekend. Tate, who has been specially trained to handle calls, said.

Similar to nurses, a shortage of paramedics, partly due to burnout of existing staff and difficulty in recruiting new staff, is widespread in BC alone. It's not happening. But across Canada

unions say some of the solutions to attract more recruits will keep paramedics on par with police and firefighters and eliminate the on-call model in rural areas.

Union officials say it's a great career and that paramedics love to help people, but stress and mental fatigue from the increased number of calls and shrinking workforce have left some , a significant number of workers are out of work.

"I see incredible mental damage, PTSD and fatigue. I can't run at that level and it doesn't affect my health," said a 34-year-old paramedic. said one Clifford. Year.

And improvements in other parts of the health care system, such as better access to family physicians and proper mental health, can reduce 911 calls. Concerned about health and addiction, he said.

"Many people in our community end up not using the 911 emergency system, which is not the best place for opiate addiction or mental health problems. I know, unless they have an immediate crisis, and unfortunately for many communities, that's where they get into the emergency system," Clifford said.

“I think there are a lot of solutions that a lot of people are working on. And that's absolutely what we have to get to, and we're not there now."

lcubert@postmedia. com

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