Editor, The News:
Re: Still waiting for new ambulances (The News, Oct. 26).
I received a card in the mail from our MLA Doug Bing. It is very colourful and flashy and describes how he is putting our communities first. The card goes on to describe how the Liberal government has added a third ambulance to help reduce response times in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
Quite frankly, Dr. Bing, you can add 100 ambulances to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. But if you do not hire any paramedics to staff them, the response times wont change at all.
In the past year, over 80 paramedics reached retirement age and have retired. How many paramedics have been hired in the past year to replace them? Of the paramedics who were hired, how many have stayed and how many have left due to the abnormally high work load faced by B.C. paramedics?
Many people are not aware that on most shifts, anywhere between five and 15 ambulances sit parked at stations because there are no paramedics available to staff them.
Until the appropriate number of paramedics are hired, is it any wonder that people in B.C. face waits of up to four hours for an ambulance.
Buck Black
BCAS superintendent (retired)
Pitt Meadows
