Image Credit: B.C. Ambulance via Flickr
February 24, 2024 - 9:42 AM
The mayor of Kamloops tried to use an impending BC Ambulance Service announcement for the city to stall the addition of a medical unit to the local fire department.
Other than news that Kamloops would be getting a "service extension," Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson would not share any details, suggesting he would wait until the ambulance service is prepared.
The ambulance service said it is not true.
In response to the mayor's comments, a BC Emergency Health Services spokesperson provided information on a hiring spree that is bringing more than 200 new paramedics to 60 rural communities on April 1.
That initiative was announced in November.
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"As this expansion applies to rural and remote communities, there will not be new positions based in Kamloops at this time," an emailed statement reads.
It goes on to say the service isn't bound by municipal boundaries, so the rural expansions still may benefit Kamloops and other cities.
The mayor used the erroneous news of a Kamloops service extension to stall an initiative to fund a dedicated medical unit for the fire department during a Feb. 20 committee of the whole meeting.
"I just got some new information this morning. I picked up the phone and called BC Ambulance Service," Hamer-Jackson said. "There's new information that we're one of a few communities in the province they're going to be extending ambulance service. Apparently there's going to be an announcement coming in a few weeks."
He didn't share anymore information, but his attempt to stall a vote was futile. City council won't decide on whether to fund the new medical team until March 5.
For the past five years, the majority of calls for Kamloops Fire Rescue have been medical, rather than fires, with the greatest need focused in the downtown and North Shore areas, according to the department.
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The proposed Kamloops Fire Rescue medical unit would include an $83,000 SUV and would need six new hires. It wouldn't carry patients, but the two-person teams would mean the department can keep its fire engines parked during medical calls, while still responding when the ambulance service calls for assistance.
It's one new item being considered for the 2024 municipal budget, estimated to cost around $1 million per year.
While firefighters have been increasingly called on to support paramedics on medical calls in Kamloops, the ambulance service said it has still been expanding within the city in recent years.
In April 2023, a 24-hour emergency unit and a patient transfer unit were added. Two non-urgent "Link and Referral" units were added in 2022, meant to refer to other healthcare services and ease pressure on the emergency department.
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