Not always just around the corner

The recent long weekend highlighted a concern for the NDP about ambulance services across the province in the rural areas.

Local MLA Gary Coons relayed his worries about the situation in a front page story in Wednesday’s Daily News. With Prince Rupert the only location in the area with full time ambulance service, Coons says that rural areas are finding that their lives are in jeopardy.

The controversy was touched on briefly by Health Minister George Abbot who appeared on the Bill Good show on Thursday morning from 9-9:30; Abbot basically dismissed the NDP charges and suggested it was an attempt to score some political points by the NDP. His comments were part of a wider discussion on health care in the province which you can listen to on the CKNW Audio Vault, select the 9-10 am block for Thursday.

What has Coons and the NDP upset is the current system in place in such locations as Masset, Sandspit, Stewart and such, a system that has on call volunteers carrying pagers, for which they are paid two dollars an hour. They then are paid the full paramedic wage if called out to a medical situation. With that, even those volunteers eventually are leaving the area, heading for larger centres and full time jobs at full time pay.

It makes for a worrisome situation in the rural areas, one that Coons and his party say needs to be taken care of immediately.

He expressed his thoughts and those of the provincial NDP in the article below.

FIX ‘BROKEN’ AMUBLANCE SYSTEM, SAYS COONS
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Page One

The shutdown of most of the North Coast’s ambulance stations during the long weekend placed people’s lives in jeopardy, says North Coast MLA Gary Coons, and he is calling on the government to step-up and do something about it.

“Once again, we see an example of rural B. C. being left behind by this Campbell government,’ said Coons. “Not only are ambulance paramedics being let down, but every community that faces shortages is being let down by the B. C. Liberal inaction.”

Prince Rupert is the only community on the North Coast that has full-time ambulance service. Communities including Masset, Sandspit, Bella Coola, Bella Bella and Stewart are served by on-call volunteers who are paid $2 an hour to wear a pager and paid a full wage if called to work.

These volunteers are having extra pressure placed on them due to impossible working conditions, he said.

“In our small communities it’s all run by volunteers, dedicated to their communities,” said Coons.

“But there’s way too much pressure, way too much stress on individuals.

It’s very difficult to keep people, more are leaving to find full-time work, which means Vancouver. The system is broken and needs fixing.”

In Bella Bella, there are two attendants who work 12 hour shifts every day. When they are called in, there are still often not any drivers available and the paramedics must rely on RCMP or firefighters to get them to and from the scene. In Rupert, Coons cites the example of a person with 17 years of part-time experience leaving for the Lower Mainland to find full-time work.

“You have people that are committed to their communities, they’re committed to the volunteering work and they’re putting their heart and soul into acting as an ambulance paramedic,” he said. “We need to look at that and at least start moving towards paying for their training and increasing the $2 an hour pager pay. We need a lot more strategies and initiatives to maintain our paramedics – we’re looking at situations that should not be occurring in rural areas.”

The NDP’s eight-member ‘Rural Caucus’, which includes the North Coast MLA and Skeena MLA Robin Austin, has decided to take on the issue and bring it to the forefront of discussions with government.

“The shortage of ambulance crews that faces rural B. C. is a direct result of the Campbell Liberal cuts,” said Coons. “There must be immediate initiatives to overcome the crucial concerns about recruitment, retainment and training in rural areas. We demand no more excuses, no more shifting blame, nor more dithering – “We demand action now,”