It was a tough weekend for BC Emergency Health Services paramedics.
“We probably had our worst weekend from what reports to me are as far as out-of-services across the province,” said Troy Clifford, president of the Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia
In Ashcroft, a man died while waiting for an ambulance after suffering an apparent heart attack within steps of the ambulance station. Unfortunately, the ambulance took 30 minutes to arrive. Reports say they were on a call in Clinton at the time.
Clifford says many communities are being left without ambulances because there are no paramedics to staff them.
“Over the weekend, we saw points where Kamloops was down to 1.5 ambulances. And what I mean 1.5 is one-and-a-half ambulance staffed. So, two paramedics on one and half on the other.
Even during this period, I know that the whole Cariboo region, right from Quesnel down to Ashcroft, was really significantly short staffed,” he said.
