Burns Lake is facing an unprecedented crisis with ambulance and paramedic shortages. This crisis is further exacerbated by physician shortage and emergency room closures in Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre.
The ambulance station in Burns Lake is struggling to provide paramedics and patients transportation within their local area. The station started providing 24/7 coverage in 2021 but its service is yet to become efficient.
With the hospital closures, Burns Lake’s B.C. Ambulance service had to transport patients out of the community leading to an ambulance shortage.
As a result, the Burns Lake Fire Department had to step in and cater to local medical calls, which has been adding to the fire department’s expenditures. Burns Lake’s local firefighters have an agreement with BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) for assisting medical emergency calls however it is a voluntary program.
The Village of Burns Lake sent a letter to BCEHS to inform them about this. However, there is a chance that recouping expenses could get rejected as the fire department’s medical aid is voluntary work.
Addressing this crisis Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad, said paramedic training should be conducted within the community so that they could respond to emergencies quickly. Rustad also said that the current two or three-man crew needs to be more efficient and changes might be required.
Jane Campbell, B.C. Emergency Health Services’ communications officer, in an email statement said that there is no ambulance shortage in Burns Lake despite two open full-time paramedic positions listed.
She said, Burns Lake ambulance station has an Alpha staffing model with paramedics working 24/7 in permanent, full-time positions.
Campbell said there are two ambulances in Burns Lake. One is staffed 24/7 by paramedics working at the station; the second is operated by full-time staff during the day and paramedics working on-call at night. Currently, 13 paramedics work full-time, and three are in on-call/ casual roles, totalling 16 paramedics in the community.
However Rob Krause, the fire chief of Burns Lake’s fire department had a different say.
Krause said that B.C. Ambulance needs to be fully staffed to be considered an Alpha Station. He said B.C. Ambulance recently hired paramedics but questions if they are fully trained and working full-time shifts. Krause added that most of their paramedics are in Terrace for training every second weekend for 10 weeks.
The fire chief referred to a Nov. 28 incident when they had to respond to a medical call from a patient with cardiac arrest, who was in the parking lot of the hospital.
The hospital was closed and there was no update on Northern Health’s (NH) Facebook page for Burns Lake’s hospital for that particular day. (The last closure update that NH posted was on Nov. 24.)
Krause said the cardiac patient being a taxpayer and a community member, there was no way the fire team could neglect the medical call.
According to Campbell, seven paramedics worked at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, she said Southside/Grassy Plains has its own ambulance station. Soon, that station will be moving to a ‘mix shift model,’ meaning there will be eight part-time regular paramedics, and the station will be staffed 16 hours a day.
For the remaining eight hours, the ambulance will be staffed by paramedics working on-call and carrying a pager.
Currently, there are two paramedics in regular part-time roles at the Southside station and three paramedics in on-call roles.
When asked about Burns Lake’s hospital emergency department closures, Campbell said paramedics transport patients to St. John Hospital in Vanderhoof.
On Nov. 26, the emergency department at Lake District Hospital was closed, and Cambell said they received a higher-than-usual volume of medical calls.
She said even with good staffing in Burns Lake, the higher-than-normal call volume and the time required to transport patients to Vanderhoof resulted in some patients waiting longer than usual for ambulances.
“We know it’s stressful when someone who needs an ambulance is waiting for one, and we apologize for any delay. We encourage families to contact the Northern Health’s Patient Care Quality Office with concerns or questions.”
She said BCEHS is currently discussing with Northern Health to address the recent hospital closures and determine the best solution.