The Atlin Whisper

Thursday October 28th, 2021

The Atlin Whisper “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world.”

Margaret Mead

EMERGENCY ADDITION Atlin is facing significant reduction in ambulance/emergency health services starting Nov 1, 2021.

Atlin ambulance services will be drastically reduced in November 2021 due to changes in staffing models implemented by BC Emergency Health Services. Local ambulance crew is committed to continue to serve the community but is unable to fit into the restrictive new schedule.

BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) has been facing staffing challenges across BC and has tried various shift pattern and compensation tactics to recruit and retain paramedics and dispatchers. As our province is very diverse, as we all know very well, the organization has not yet been successful in finding standardized approaches that work well in all communities, particularly rural and remote communities with low call volume.

In an effort to address challenges, BCEHS has created a new shift pattern Scheduled-On-Call (SOC) that it is rolling out in many rural and remote communities across BC, beginning on November 1st, 2021.

While this shift pattern was announced two years ago, BCEHS committed to community and station engagement to ensure that the pattern would fit each community well. In essence, the SOC pattern involves hiring full-time paramedics in a 3 day on/ 3 day off, 24 hour rotation. Some of the time (8 hours) must be spent in-station and the remaining hours are oncall. While this sounds appealing on the surface (who wouldn’t think that full-time positions would help!) there are many reasons why this may not work in many of our rural and remote communities. Unfortunately, the community consultation was not completed and now BCEHS is adamant that this model will be pushed forward in all identified communities, despite damages the anticipation is already causing in some communities.

In Atlin, due to community commitment and our local culture of service, the local ambulance crew was previously able to retain and recruit enough members to ensure 24/7/365 coverage for decades.

There were absolutely zero no-responder or lone responder days in recorded or oral history (preBC Ambulance support or documentation).

The previous flexible Kilo model allowed for work, life and volunteer obligations to be balanced with service to community. Recent years of Kilo Guarantee (a 4 hour minimum pay per shift regardless of call out) allowed the crew to recruit more members and to ensure that crew was compensated for the work and life sacrifices that being on-call entailed. The current system (until Nov 1) was working very well for community and ensured the citizens of Atlin NEVER

experienced a call that was not answered, or an emergency health need that was not met with local care providers, with cultural safety, with familial, medical and socio economic knowledge and deep care.

The local crew is willing, able, and committed to continuing to provide excellent medical and patient care under the existing Kilo model, but is not able to work under the new SOC shift pattern.

As of Nov 1, under this new SOC model, the community anticipates that it will have only 5 days of full coverage in the month of November, with some additional days with only lone responders. Due to challenges with geography, lack of paid or public transportation, lack of consistent means of communication, lack of legal or known street addresses, lack of other community responders or close communities for cross coverage, and more, lone responders and out-of-town crew will not be able to safely navigate the provision of care. No-responders or lone responders will place an unreasonable burden of medical response and transportation on our local support and health services: the RCMP, local nurses, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation Health and Social team, Atlin Supportive Living Society, elder/senior workers and all community members.

Most importantly, it puts community members at risk!

With winter fast approaching, inclement weather and poor driving conditions paired with inconsistent access to personal vehicles and no paid or public transportation means that community members may not be able to access health care at all without a responding ambulance.

The community has requested that BCEHS consult and create an exception to the SOC model to ensure the current delicate balance of healthcare provision for the community continues as it is now. Our community has already lost local ambulance crew in anticipation of these changes. We can’t lose more.

Please consider writing to our regional, provincial and federal political and health representation to request an exception, a reconsideration and community consultation, and an immediate reinstatement of the system in place prior to the SOC model. Other BC rural/remote/indigenous communities in BC may also be expecting a reduction in service.

From the editor: PLEASE PASS THIS ALONG TO ANYONE YOU MAY KNOW IN TOWN WHO DOES NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE INTERNET AS THIS NOTICE IS NOT GOING OUT IN HARDCOPY Thank you Lynne