The Community Paramedic program has taken off so successfully at Cowichan Lake that it may be time to bring in a second paramedic.
Mike Wright, paramedic, gave his quarterly update to Lake Cowichan town councillors March 12.
“This project has been operating in your community since June of last year. Our focus is dealing in a non-emergent manner for people in their homes, people who are dealing with chronic diseases such as COPD, congestive heart failure, diabetes, and palliative care as well.
“I’m happy to report that the program has actually taken off exponentially to the point where I actually have a waiting list of people. I’m presently seeing 26 people in and around the lake. There is a huge need and we’re seeing benefits already.
“We’re at the point where we see people in their homes, do the vital signs check, see something that’s not quite right, reach out to the doctor from in the home and quite often all it is is a medication change and it’s done right there, over the phone. We’re seeing positive results.
“That is negating the need for the person to take an emergency trip to the hospital, which is all part of the idea where we want to keep people in their homes longer. We want to keep them out of the system, out of the hospitals.”
Wright said that while it’s clear that people get better in their homes, there have been times when he’s taken a look around on arrival and promptly called an ambulance to take people to hospital.
That part of his work is going well, although he’s finding more than he can cope with himself.
“The second part of it is education. Now, with the good weather coming, you’ll more often see me out in the community, outside Country Grocer, that’s one of my favourite haunts, the drug store down there between the doctors office and pharmacy, I like to hang out there, too. I do just regular blood sugar checks, blood pressure checks. We’ve been able to identify some existing medical conditions that have not been readily apparent to the people.
Wright said he also has some workshops coming up soon, and is involved with a project at the high school.
“We’re pretty busy, I’m hoping that at some point there may be some backup help for me. I’m full time out here Tuesday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and I could easily use another half-time person. Just generally speaking, I think the program is really going well.”
lexi.bainas@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
