BC Ambulance Service

February 8, 2007

VICTORIA - Ambulance Service in the Lower Mainland

  • The average response time for urgent calls in the Lower Mainland has been consistently under nine minutes for the last few years.
  • The BC Ambulance Service is working toward a target response time for urgent urban calls of less than nine minutes, 90 per cent of the time.
  • Most urban jurisdictions in Canada have a similar target and all are challenged to reach it because of increasing demand across the system.
  • The budget for the BC Ambulance Service has risen more than 50 per cent in the past five years, reaching $267 million this year (2006/07), compared to the 2001/02 budget for emergency health services of $176 million.
  • The number of ambulances has also increased. In 2001/02, there were 463 ambulances in B.C. Today there are 503 ambulances on the streets across the province.
  • The Lower Mainland received 13 of the new ambulances added. In addition, BC Ambulance Service will be adding up to four more ambulances as permanent resources for the Lower Mainland.
  • In the last four years, demand for ambulance service throughout B.C. has increased by 38 per cent. The BC Ambulance Service responded to about 384,000 ambulance calls in 2002/03. Last year in 2005/06, BC Ambulance Service responded to more than 530,000 calls.
  • Calls in the Lower Mainland have increased 20 per cent over the past three years compared to 29 per cent province-wide.
  • Of the 205,000 incidents ambulances responded to in the Lower Mainland last year, 33 per cent (66,800 cases) did not require a transport to hospital, meaning the specialized medical skills of paramedics could have benefited another patient.
  • BC Ambulance Service has a number of strategies underway to improve response times:
    • working more closely with first responders who provide basic care while paramedics are on the way,
    • working closely with health authorities to streamline ambulance turnarounds at emergency departments and get ambulances back onto the street faster,
    • improving the dispatch call assessment process to send the most appropriate level of care to every call,
    • increasing the number of paramedics on shift during peak periods, and
    • funding overtime shifts to maintain response capacity.