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NEWS: Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize for literature /A3 BUSINESS: UVic centre boosts startups /A6 COMMUNITY: Healing and redemption in garden /A26
VICTORIANEWS Wednesday, October 16, 2013
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Ambulance response times best in B.C. Daniel Palmer News staff
When it comes to trauma, the difference between life and death can be a matter of seconds. And while the system isn't perfect, Greater Victoria residents can find comfort in knowing they've got the fastest average ambulance response times in B.C. According to the latest data from the B.C. Ambulance Service, ambulances averaged a response time of 7:26 in Victoria last year, the fastest in the province and a far cry from the provincial median of 15 minutes. "We have a saying that time is brain, or time is muscle, meaning every minute gives you an opportunity to save those particular tissues," said Dr. Chris Morrow, site chief for emergency medicine for the South Island at Island Health. Morrow and other emergency room doctors liaise with the roughly 200 paramedics and 15 ambulances that cover Sooke to Sidney in an attempt to shave crucial seconds off hospital arrival and wait times each year. "There are a number of critical conditions in which time will save lives, like severe allergic reactions, acute stroke and acute heart attack," Morrow said. The average 30-45 minutes it takes for non-trauma patients to move from ambulance
to emergency rooms is also important in maintaining fast local response times, said Grant Brilz, Greater Victoria district manager with the B.C. Ambulance Service. "That allows us to move ambulances back on to the streets, where they're available for other calls, which then reduces the response times to those subsequent calls," Brilz said. B.C. ambulances aren't restricted by municipal boundaries, which allows greater flexibility to move services around the region as patient demand requires, he added. Peak ambulance times usually occur at 11 a.m. and in the early afternoon, when patient transfers between hospitals are in full swing. PlEASE SEE: Fast times, Page A10
Speedy response City
Avg. time
n Victoria
7:26 min.
n Sidney
7:48 min.
n Saanich
8:15 min.
n Esquimalt
8:15 min.
n Colwood
8:27 min.
n Langford
8:33 min.
n Sooke
8:34 min.
William Shepherd/News staff
Scroll celebration Congregation Emanu El Rabbi Harry Brechner reads from one of the synagogue’s Torah scrolls. The synagogue celebrates the return of two 300-year-old scrolls this weekend. Please see the story on page A3.
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