The regional district is asking the province to refrain from implementing any changes to the B.C. Ambulance Service response guidelines on first responder protocols until consultation has been made with local governments to ensure the needs of the local communities have been met.
At the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) board of directors meeting on Thursday, Jan. 30 in Grand Forks, the board voted for a recommendation to approve two resolutions to be presented to the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG) regarding fire departments acting as first responders during emergencies.
“What happened was, a group of doctors got together and decided they would make the decisions on protocol,” said Grace McGregor, RDKB board chair and Area C (Christina Lake) director.
McGregor said that protocol is different in the cities, where an ambulance is usually five or 10 minutes away, than in the rural areas where you’ve got an ambulance 25 minutes away. The board wanted each community to make their own standards, she said, to be in consultation and create standards for when first responders get called.
“For instance, at Christina Lake we want our first responders called pretty much every call because our tax dollars actually train them,” she said.
“That’s what we train them for; we’re a senior community. We’re 20-25 minutes away. So we want a first responder on the scene right away to help out prior to the ambulance getting there. That’s the bottom line.”