WHEREAS the administration and delivery of health care service is the responsibility of the Province of British Columbia; AND WHEREAS the British Columbia Ambulance Service, operating under the authority of the Emergency and Health Services Commission to provide public ambulance service across the province, has a target to respond within 9 minutes to 90 of the most serious calls DeltaEcho from its metrourban stations and in 2009 responded within 9 minutes to only 52 of those calls placing the citizens of this province at risk: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of British Columbia Municipalities call upon the Province of British Columbia to direct sufficient resources to meet the response time criteria to ensure that citizens of this province have access to timely high quality care during medical emergencies.
Ministry of Health Services Meeting response time targets is a challenge for the BC Ambulance Service BCAS as it is for most other Emergency Medical Service providers across North America and the world. Ambulance response times are impacted by: demand, population growth, ambulance deployment models, dispatch processes and policies, weather, terrain, road infrastructure, traffic and geography. BCAS is not aware of any Canadian emergency medical service provider that is consistently meeting a target of reaching 90 percent of urgent calls in urban areas in less than 9 minutes. In 200809, the average response times for BCAS to reach urgent events in urban communities was 10:20. BCAS response time goals for urgent events are detailed in our 2010 Service Plan and are as follows: Urgent DeltaEcho Response Time Targets UrbanMetro communities 9 mins 201011: 55 201112: 60 201213: 65 Rural communities 15mins 201011: 75 201112: 80 201213: 85 RemoteOther communities 30 mins 201011: 80 201112: 85 201213: 85 BCAS is committed to improving response times for the most urgent calls where it can make the most impact on patient outcomes. Recent initiatives to improve response times include: - Automatic Vehicle Locators AVL were implemented in all 196 Lower Mainland ambulances in 2009. AVL enable dispatchers to see where all our ambulances are located on a live map and dispatch the closest vehicles to emergency calls. - In addition to AVL, all ambulances in BC were equipped with GPS units in 2010. - BCAS has implemented a new integrated dispatch information system in two of three dispatch centres and will roll the new system out to the third centre later in 2010. - BCAS has added resources to its busiest areas of the Lower Mainland, including adding two 11 hour ambulance shifts in 2007 and two 11 hour ambulance shifts in 2008 in Surrey and one 24 hour ambulance in Burnaby. This 2 million investment created 20 new full time positions. - In addition to setting response time targets, BCAS has implemented call handling and chute time targets, to improve performance of the individual components that constitute the overall response time. The chute time is the time it takes ambulance crews to get mobile. Response times are extremely important but also just as important is the care and treatment paramedics provide when they arrive on scene. Significant investment has been spent on providing additional training and education to paramedics. Targeted efforts in new training and education for BCAS Paramedics and Dispatchers in CPR has shown a 20 percent increase in survival rates of cardiac arrest victims over the last few years.