Houston’s ambulance station is to shift to coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week as part of a province-wide move to improve service in more rural and remote areas.
The July 14 announcement by health minister Adrian Dix outlined plans for 24/7 coverage for six rural ambulance stations by this fall and 16 more next year but it isn’t yet known how Houston fits in with that schedule.
The news followed concerns here and in Burns Lake and in other smaller communities that another system called scheduled-on-call would actually reduce service and response time.
Scheduled-on-call would have the benefit of having paramedics assigned regular shifts where they would be at the ambulance station for eight hours a day and on call for the remaining 16 hours a day over a three-day rotation.
But because they would not be physically at the station for 16 hours a day, there are worries about a long response time when called out.
And in Houston, there’s a particular concern about the potential impact on the medical call out duties of the Houston Volunteer Fire Department.
“In this context, the fire department may be paged for more calls which may put more pressure on the unit,” a briefing note to the District of Houston council states.
“There are times now that the fire department is on calls and needs to wait for an ambulance to come from Smithers, Granisle or Burns Lake.”
The issue of scheduled-on-call was sufficient for the District of Houston council to add it to the list of issues to raise with senior provincial officials this fall at the annual Union of BC Municipalities convention.
In general, the scheduled-on-call system of paid shifts of eight hours at the station and 16 hours away is meant to provide a stable income for paramedics in hopes of attracting people to consider it as a career in smaller and more rural locations.
As it is, Houston has 14 paramedics available for call outs and two community paramedics who concentrate on home visits and community activities. The station has two ambulances and one community paramedic vehicle.
“During the 2020-21 fiscal year, Houston had 483 paramedic responses,” indicates information from BC Emergency Health Services.
“The bulk of those responses (close to 80 per cent) were in Houston. Paramedic responses were also made in the surrounding area, including Smithers, Burns Lake, Topley and Rose Lake.”
The 24/7 coverage announced by Dix is called 24/7 ALPHA and is defined as having paramedics at the station or in an ambulance with a partner so that a response time is measured in seconds and not minutes.
Dix also announced 85 full-time paramedics will be hired but it isn’t known how that might fit into Houston’s conversion to 24/7 coverage.
