Access to Emergency Health Services

Whereas the February 2019 Auditor-Generals Report Access to Emergency Health Services recommended that the Ministry of Health work with local governments and British Columbia Emergency Health Services BCEHS to ensure that BCEHS can implement a co-ordinated approach to pre-hospital care that results in: - medical oversight, to the extent appropriate, across agencies to ensure that patient care meets acceptable medical standards - data-sharing between agencies to better understand whether patients are getting the right medical interventions at the right time - signed agreements outlining the roles and responsibilities of fire departments, including the level of care provided - confirmation that first responders are being notified of events where they can best contribute to patient care.; And whereas urban fire departments continue to receive fewer calls to attend to provide emergency medical assistance and the public must wait for BCEHS, unnecessarily, despite the ability of fire departments to provide faster medical assistance; And whereas local governments and BCEHS have been meeting for several years and have failed to enter into agreements for the fire service personnel to provide emergency medical assistance to the level of their training; And whereas some local governments want the ability to respond to more calls and provide a wider range of emergency medical assistance; And whereas despite the fact that fire services personnel may provide ancillary health services pursuant to the Health Emergency Services Act without an agreement with the BCEHS, the BCEHS controls all calls, through the Critical Response Model, and does not dispatch such calls: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urge local governments, at their discretion, to maintain complete authority over the level of emergency medical assistant training their respective fire departments and personnel will attain, consistent with the level of service each deems appropriate to their communities; And be it further resolved that, at their discretion, local governments have the authority to determine the appropriate response level, of their fire departments, including call type based on the needs of their respective community.