Many Okanagan communities are seeing ambulances sitting idle as there aren’t enough paramedics to properly staff them. According to the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, that means increased response times and less access to emergency health services.
“Penticton, Spallumcheen, Oliver, Osoyoos — those areas are down to one ambulance for each community on a regular basis and that’s 50 per cent of our ambulances. We’re seeing incredible call volumes and resources that just aren’t available because of our lack of paramedics to work our ambulances,” said Troy Clifford, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of BC.
Due to the shortage of paramedics, other first responders like firefighters are attending to more medical calls.
