If the city’s First Responder system isn’t broken, why fix it?
WEDNESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — If you had an accident or medical emergency, would you care whether a fire truck or an ambulance got to you first? Wouldn’t you be grateful that there were two of them rushing to help?
That’s what Coun. Pat Wallace asked Tuesday as City council debated the issue of “first responders.” It’s the system where firefighters are trained to respond to the same calls for assistance as ambulance crews.
Some people think having both respond is a waste of money. But, really, is it? As fire chief Dale McLean explained to council, when firefighters reach a scene first — as is often the case, by the way — they render assistance until an ambulance arrives, then return to other duties.
Fact is, the system is smart. B.C. Ambulance crews do wonderful work, but they only have so many resources. Having firefighters respond to calls adds strength to the healthcare system and makes us all safer.
As Coun. Marg Spina said, if the system isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Interesting, too, that the council discussion was held in the context of a change in policy by B.C. Ambulance that reduces the types of calls it will respond to with lights and sirens. The calls will still be answered, but not necessarily with lights flashing and sirens wailing.
It’s a public safety issue, they say. If lights and sirens aren’t necessary for the type of call being answered, it’s better not to use them. In certain circumstances, some calls for things like animal bites, fainting, convulsions, falls, hemorrhaging and electrocutions won’t be answered “hot” by an ambulance.
Kamloops Fire and Rescue has changed a few things on its list, too, but for the most part will continue with lights and sirens. McLean believes it can be done safely.
So, some situations will involve a fire truck with flashing lights and sirens, plus an ambulance with no flashing lights or sirens. The results will be reviewed in a few months, and it will be interesting to see if there’s any change in response times.
But unless council decides at some point to change the current first responder policy, we’ll still have the comfort that both are on their way to help.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
The system IS broken and needs to be fixed. The reality is that calls for ambulances steadily increases year after year and calls for fire departments decrease at the same rate. More population, lack of family doctors, aging seniors all contribute to a rise in medical “emergencies”. Yet building codes, construction materials, smoke detectors and education have resulted in a drop in structure fires. Better safety in the automotive industry reduce injuries in many motor vehicle accidents.
What does this mean? Fire departments tradional work is changing. They are not needed for putting the “wet stuff on the red stuff” as often yet their operational budgets grow annually.
Ambulances and Paramedics are responding to more and more “medical” emergencies yet there hasn’t beed a major increase in the number of staff, ambulances or stations in the Province in close to 20 years. In fact there has been reductions in many BC communities.
Training for Paramedics has evolved and improved but that only goes so far when the number of 911 calls grows by leaps and bounds. Firefighters are not trained to the same level as Paramedics. In most cases your average lifeguard at the local community center has more training. This is not a slag but plane fact.
Should the training for firefighters be increased? Maybe. But consider the cost. A Primary Care Paramedic PCP level (the majority training in BC) costs $6-7000 per student and takes about a year to complete. The Advanced Care Paramedic ACP costs close to $20,000 and two years of schooling AFTER the PCP level is completed so now your at $27,000 per student. That cost would have to be added to existing budgets of municipal fire departments to get a workable number of cross-trained firefighters on fire trucks that could respond and treat patients at the same levels as Ambulance Paramedics. Add the cost of transport capable ambulances to a fire department fleet at $100.000 per unit and you can quickly see having fire departments duplicate the Provincial Service would bankrupt most if not all cities.
Whereas a moderate increase to staffing levels and resources to the BCAS model would be a fraction of the cumulative cost upgrading Fire Departments.
Parameidicine is a real career just like being a professional firefighter is. There are many schools across Canada offering the PCP and ACP levels and graduate hundreds of students each year. These men and women don’t want to be fire fighter or police officers. They WANT to be Paramedics. Emergency Medical (or Health) Services (EMS/EHS) has a greater diversity of race and sex than fire or police services. It’s its own career unto itself.
Don’t spend Billions on changing fire services. Invest in the Ambulance Services
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Agreed. Also the proper response to a medical call is an ambulance with Paramedics. You don’t send Firefighters to police incidents, you don’t send Paramedics to fight fires. 6% of medical calls Firefighters provide assistance which is helpful to patients, the other 94% of the time they make no difference to patient outcomes. Fire Fighters need to be ready to deal with Fire and Rescue situations, Police need to be working to reduce crime, leave the Medical stuff for the right type of truck with the right crew.
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