The union representing B.C. paramedics says the province’s new approach over time leaves some ambulances unstaffed.
British Columbia Paramedics spokesperson Ian Tait said B.C.’s emergency health services have long relied on overtime to ensure shifts are filled.
He said the employer’s previous approach was to schedule these shifts in advance, which it no longer does.
“Since January 1, they decided not to pre-schedule people into predictable vacancies and to sort of proceed on a more daily basis, whereas at the start of the shift change at 6 a.m., they panic trying to cover the teams,” he said.
“We are seeing a significant increase in the number of empty ambulances, which essentially translates into a reduction in frontline services. »
Tait said Saturday that the White Rock station was staffed at 50 percent of normal levels, while the Tri-Cities station was down 25 percent.
Receive weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information every Sunday.
He said the end result was people with less urgent calls having to wait longer for an ambulance to arrive.
It’s an experience that Greg Ladret said he had Thursday evening.
The 73-year-old Vancouver man felt dizzy and fell at a bus stop at 49th Avenue and Cambie Street.
The bus driver called 911 while bystanders helped him sit on a bench; despite two hours of waiting, no ambulance arrived.
“You expect to call an ambulance and have them there within a reasonable amount of time to get you to the hospital,” he said.
“If my wife hadn’t been available to take me to the hospital, I guess I could have called a taxi? But I needed a way to get from where I was to a better situation.
In a statement, British Columbia Emergency Health Services said it closely monitors staffing levels daily and takes steps to “fill positions as quickly as possible when they become vacant.”
“It’s part of daily operations, with patient care at the forefront. We use various means to fill shifts, including the movement of resources and/or the use of overtime,” the agency said.
“We can confirm that overtime is one of the strategies that has been used throughout this week.”
He added that ambulances are not limited to municipal limits and teams from one area can be deployed to another if necessary.
In its own statement, the Ministry of Health added that there had been “ no increase in the number of out-of-service ambulances since the overtime policy was revised, and response times have remained largely stable.
Tait acknowledged the employer had worked hard to hire more paramedics, but said the process had not been enough to maintain a full complement amid retirements.
“If you canceled all overtime, the ambulance service would collapse in about 90 minutes… simply because we are not able to hire as many people as we need to fill all the vacancies,” he said. -he declared.
Ladret, meanwhile, expressed an opinion likely shared by many British Columbians.
“I don’t know the situation,” he said. “I just know from the outside, I’m like, ‘I need an ambulance, where are they?’
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.