The Houston ambulance station officially converted to 24-7 coverage 6 a.m. Oct. 29, following an announcement made in July that it and more than 20 other stations in smaller communities around the north and elsewhere would soon have enough paramedics on duty to expand services.
As of late last week seven of the eight paramedic positions needed for around the clock coverage at what the provincial ambulance service calls an Alpha station have been hired, said Shannon Miller from BC Emergency Health Services.
Five of the eight people hired were locals, she added.
“An acting unit chief is already in position,” Miller said as the hiring process for that job remains underway.
The full time positions are sufficient to have two paramedics at the station or in one of its two ambulances around the clock.
On-call/casual paramedics will be called out to staff the station’s second ambulance at times when the first one has been dispatched.
Miller said on-call/casual paramedics will also provide time off and holiday relief to the permanent ones.
Other than the station’s two community paramedics who have their own vehicle and who will continue in that role, there was no permanent full time paramedic position in Houston, a situation similar at many other ambulance stations in smaller communities.
The Houston station is one of six in the north being converted to 24/7 coverage with the others being Burns Lake, Chetwynd, Fort St James, Fort Nelson and Vanderhoof.
Local governments of smaller B.C. communities for years have been pushing for ambulance service improvements. Staffing levels at smaller ambulance stations have relied heavily on part time, on call paramedics but the level of pay — $2 an hour while on-call — was widely regarded as insufficient for someone to consider employment as a paramedic.
The ambulance service did propose what it called “scheduled on call” of regular shifts and full pay and benefits at some of the larger stations in that paramedics would be at the station for eight hours 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 longer response time when called out.
This scheduled on call rotation is being introduced in smaller locations and for Granisle that means four such positions have been created.
In addition to Granisle, four “scheduled on call” positions will also be brought in at ambulance stations on the Southside, Atlin, Dease Lake, Bear Lake, Hudson’s Hope, Mackenzie, McBride, Port Clements on Haida Gwaii, Stewart and Wells.