In a statement on social media early Saturday morning, the union warned that “many” of the Lower Mainland’s advanced life support units were “sitting empty” overnight. In Maple Ridge, a city of about 90,000, BC Ambulance reported there were no staffed ambulances on Saturday. “We urge the public to be aware that there may be significant service delays and to use 911 when someone’s health or safety is in danger, to use 811 when unsure,” union president Troy Clifford wrote, adding that the situation it is indicative of a province-wide crisis that “seems to have no end”. A particularly disturbing example of the effect of these staff shortages has been seen in the Ashcroft Inner Community. This week, for the second time in less than a month, a Village resident died while waiting for an ambulance to respond – prompting the mayor to sound the alarm again. “I’d like to tell you that this is isolated to Ashcroft, but it’s not,” Clifford told CTV News after that incident. “We just don’t have enough paramedics to fill the positions. The system has not addressed the precarious on-call model.” Clifford says normally, Ashcroft would have two ambulances: a full-time primary response unit and a secondary ambulance based on on-call, casual staffing. However, he said, the second is rarely staffed anymore as there are not enough paramedics and even the primary ambulance is not always staffed. He added that it’s a strain other communities experience, and tragic cases like these also have a big impact on first responders. “Paramedics and dispatchers just want to do their job,” he said. “These are all system failures.” In 2021, ambulances responded to record calls as the combined public health emergencies of COVID-19 and the toxic drug crisis continued to challenge short-staffed crews. Additionally, extreme weather events such as the deadly heat dome, raging fires and devastating floods have added stress to a system and its workers that Clifford and the union have repeatedly said are buckling under the strain. “Every corner of BC is suffering from unprecedented staffing, recruitment and retention issues. We don’t have enough paramedics and dispatchers to meet the call volume and demand for service,” said a statement posted on the union’s website in June of this year. “We’ve never seen our ability to respond to patients in their time of need be in such danger.” With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Maria Weisgarber
