File Photo (Image Credit: Asaja Nielsen)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Spend-happy provincial government should pay for KFR medical response unit

Feb 23, 2024 | 12:30 PM

IF YOU LIVE IN THE CITY OF KAMLOOPS and your taxes go up a little higher next year, a new medical response unit for Kamloops Fire Rescue might be part of the reason.

Chief Ken Uzeloc has requested the unit as a supplemental item in budget deliberations.

Uzeloc says KFR crews, who are ostensibly supposed to be firefighters, have been handling a massive increase in medical calls — 41 per cent more between 2021 and 2022, the last two full years of data.

The two-person team would respond to medical calls in an SUV rather than a rescue truck, freeing up fire resources to do fire-related things.

If, to your ears, that sounds suspiciously like what ambulance paramedics do, you’re not alone.

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Uzeloc says not only are there more and more medical calls, it’s KFR who shows up first to three out of every four incidents.

Typically, after about four minutes, paramedics from B.C. Emergency Health Services arrive.

Incidentally, that’s exactly the scenario that played out when I had a medical emergency in 2021.

A KFR truck screamed up to my house first, the firefighters did an initial assessment and got me on my feet, and that’s when BC EHS arrived and took over.

Four minutes may not seem like a lot, but for some patients, it could be absolutely critical.

It’s unclear if the escalation in medical calls is also being seen by BC EHS, but regardless, the agency that is best equipped to respond first to medical calls is not doing that nearly enough.

That has nothing to do with the paramedics themselves, who perform miracles every day to keep patients alive.

Rather, it’s an example of a provincially-run organization failing to meet the changing demands of our communities.

KFR trucks arriving first to medical calls should be the exception, not the rule.

The province has jurisdiction over health care.

If the City of Kamloops is going to start operating a type of paramedic service, perhaps this spend-happy provincial government can pony up the dough for it, not the local taxpayer.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.