Richmond, along with some other B.C. cities, is leading a push to reverse recent changes by the ambulance service they claim are putting the province's patients at risk and off-loading the cost of emergency services to municipalities.
Several Metro municipalities say their residents have had to wait much longer for ambulances since the B.C. Ambulance Service, last October, decided to downgrade 74 call types from emergency to routine, and told fire departments they could ignore many emergency calls.
This means that first responders are no longer required to attend cases such as falls, traumas, motor vehicle accidents and assaults, with lights and sirens blaring.
Provincial emergency officials acknowledged the move will add an average of six minutes to routine calls, but said it will also boost the response rate for critically ill patients by at least a minute, and reduce speed-related crashes involving ambulances.
Situations have been reported in Richmond, which is seeing close to a 10-minute increase in the now-designated routine calls.
In the past four months, 29 patients in Richmond had to wait at least 40 minutes for an ambulance.
Mayors argue there shouldn't be a distinction when it comes to patients' need.
"You just can't treat people in medical distress in such a casual manner," Mayor Malcolm Brodie said.
"Ambulance paramedics have a higher level of training and skill than most firefighters.
"They're being called to these scenes for a reason. I just think we need to do better than this."
Metro Vancouver's city and fire officials said it will leave some patients waiting longer for a paramedic - in some cases for more than an hour - when they are potentially facing a serious situation.
The issue has become so heated and political that Metro Vancouver fire chiefs have sought an independent evaluation, while a majority of fire departments in B.C. said they will continue to respond to calls even if the province said it doesn't have to.
"We've said, 'look, you're saying we shouldn't respond if someone has fallen a couple of flights of stairs and it's one degree outside and you're not sending anybody for 40 minutes because you consider this a 'routine' call?'" Vancouver Fire Chief John McKearney said in an interview Wednesday. "It is a ludicrous approach."
