Elderly man in Surrey, BC expected to issueurgent care after breakingambulance and waiting 10 hours. is speaking out in her local by-election.
Jaqui Joys fell at her home on August 7 and broke her hip, recording her first 911 call around 9 p.m. .
READ MORE: Ashcroft, British Columbia Senior dies while waiting for ambulance
While she waited, her son came to look after her, but when the ambulance did not arrive in the middle of the night, they called again.
"Twice she said they had an ambulance on their way, but apparently they weren't... They kept saying yes, they were on their way," Joyce said.
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Finally, around 7am, an ambulance arrived and took Joyce to the hospital, where he was taken within hours. was admitted to the hospital for hip surgery.
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Joys said that the paramedics that eventually arrived were "excellent" and she understands that the medical system is understaffed, but that the system could be subject to such delays.
"Ten hours is not a reasonable amount of time," she said.
"We need some priorities and I think EMS is a very important priority."
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In an interview, B.C. Emergency Medical Services senior vice president and paramedic chief Liane Heppel apologized to Joyce for the painful delay.
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she said.
"As part of our policy, we checked with patients again to ensure that their condition did not worsen while they were waiting and to see if they needed more accuracy on the call.
Nonetheless, Heppell said the files would be reviewed, and officials were happy to meet with Joys to tell them what had happened.
But Joyce's case touched on a candidate for a by-election in South Surrey.
BC Liberal candidate Eleanor Starko called the incident "very disheartening".
Read more: BC After waiting for an ambulance for nearly three hours, the elderly were forced to muddy themselves on the floor. Son said:
, even in our state, people have died because they had to wait so long without help," said Sturko.
This summer, he killed two people in the community of Ashcroft from heart attacks during a time when ambulance services were not available.
Sturko said the BC liberal government will focus on recruiting and retaining paramedics and her 911 operators by prioritizing the support and health of stressed staff.
"Nobody who attended these services wanted to leave suffering people at home overnight," she said.
BC Green candidate Simran Sarai says paramedics are "overworked and underpaid" because they face multiple stacking crises.
READ MORE: 'This is not a heat wave problem': B.C. There are
other mental health epidemics," she said.
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Salai says the green government will continue to follow the “scheduled on-call” scheduling model promised by the NDP government last summer. to urgently implement and change regulations to help firefighters reduce the burden of emergency medical care.
NDP candidate Pauline Greaves said she was unavailable for an interview.
"The BC NDP government provides an ambulance service and this is her one of the biggest sources of funding for any part of our health system," she said in an email. .
READ MORE: "Extreme": B.C. }
"This means more dispatchers and hundreds of new paramedics. But there is still a lot of work to be done." While trying to get back on her feet, she hopes her story will help improve the system. How long could I have been here otherwise?" she asked.
"I have to do something urgently."
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