Skip to content

Delta not giving up on fight to dispatch firefighters

Civic politicians in Delta are hoping other city councils will join their call to have fire departments deployed to a wider range of emergency calls. Councillors recently discussed Delta's efforts to have B.C.
fire dept
In 2015, Delta rolled out a new program to provide enhanced medical aid, a move not well received by paramedics.

Civic politicians in Delta are hoping other city councils will join their call to have fire departments deployed to a wider range of emergency calls.

Councillors recently discussed Delta's efforts to have B.C. Emergency Health Services, which runs the B.C. Ambulance Service and oversees paramedic care in the province, notify the Delta Fire Department during most emergency dispatches.

"We've had a 67 per cent drop in medical calls from BCEHS since they changed their protocol," said Delta fire Chief Paul Scholfield. “This has resulted in increased wait times and more pain and discomfort in many instances for people and right now we're frustrated at being excluded from these calls.”

In 2015, Delta rolled out a new program to provide enhanced medical aid, a move not well received by paramedics, to the point B.C. Emergency Health Services claimed Delta was acting illegally.

Since acquiring enhanced training, Delta firefighters were dispatched simultaneously during a 911 call involving a medical emergency. Firefighters can get to most scenes within three to eight minutes, while paramedics are 10 minutes or more behind, according to city officials.

Last year, changes to 911 protocols, which Scholfield said were done without consultation, resulted in calls being directed to and controlled by B.C. Ambulance. Fire departments are now only notified in certain cases.

Delta officials presented their case to Premier John Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix at last year's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention but that plea didn’t go anywhere.

Coun. Lois Jackson, who as mayor last year raised the alarm about the changes, said they've been "leaving no stone unturned" on the issue and hope that now there are new mayors and city councils in the region they'll get more support.

Jackson, who referenced her own negative experience with a medical call for her daughter, said Delta taxpayers expect the highest level of service possible. While firefighters are not meant to replace ambulance crews, an ambulance dispatcher shouldn't have the power to exclude firefighters from medical situations, she complained.

Mayor George Harvie agreed, saying they have the legislative ability to dispatch firefighters but aren’t getting cooperation from B.C. Emergency Health Services.

"We're very much alone and lack support from the other cities and city managers," Harvie said. "We will reach out to the new councils to see which cities want to provide this level of service. I'm not saying every city should be doing this but we should have the ability to make this determination."

Coun. Dan Copeland, Delta's former fire chief, said the city has invested heavily in its emergency service resources but is being stymied.

Council agreed that Harvie should meet Metro Vancouver mayors and city managers to discuss the changes to the clinical response model and identify solutions to present to the provincial government.

In response to Jackson's concerns last year, B.C. Emergency Health Services officials wrote letters to the Optimist stating they're committed to working in partnership with Delta firefighters to provide excellent patient care for emergency medical calls.

They said the additional training Delta firefighters received does not provide any immediate lifesaving procedures or treatments, but rather offers increased diagnostic and symptom relief. They said the colour-coded system of classifying emergencies is an evidence-based triage process that happens nearly 1,500 times a day in B.C.

"Simply put, this medical call triage system and CRM (clinical response model) ensure that the right resources are sent to the right patients in the right amount of time. It ensures that valuable emergency resources, including fire first responders, are prioritized to the patients that need them urgently. Since implementation, paramedic response times to life-threatening emergencies has improved significantly," stated Cameron Eby, president of Ambulance Paramedics of BC, CUPE Local 873.