Ambulance service reinstated in Stewart, B.C., after town 'made a stink,' mayor says

The mayor of a small B.C. town on the Alaska border says her media campaign to advocate for backfill paramedics to staff her community's ambulance service this month has been successful.

Angela Brand Danuser, the mayor of Stewart, B.C., a district of about 500 people, about 515 kilometres northwest of Prince George, says travelling paramedics will begin to work in the community starting Monday morning.

She had found out the district was without access to ambulance service earlier this week and on Thursday told reporters she had had no communication from officials about when access would return.

On Friday, she says she was able to tell residents service was being restored.

"Unfortunately, there will continue to be no paramedic coverage this weekend. This remains completely unacceptable, and I understand how concerning this is for our community."

She added there is also currently no coverage for Saturday, July 27, but noted B.C. Emergency Health Services is working to schedule coverage for that date.

The community's two paramedics are currently off work, according to Brand Danuser, and had not been backfilled until now.

The nearest ambulances would be dispatched from Hazelton, about a three-hour drive away, she said.

"That's not acceptable. That's not going to help you," Brand Danuser said Thursday.

She noted Stewart has an aging population and is a popular tourist destination with a strong mining industry, all demographics that could require an ambulance.

She noted the community had two "near misses" in the past week as a result of the service disruption.

"There was somebody who had phoned for an ambulance and was waiting and waiting and waiting — and then finally decided to bring the person to the health centre themselves," she said.

"We have a beautiful health centre with excellent staff, but if you can't get there … what good is it?"

Brand Danuser said she thinks her media blitz on the issue helped get the paramedics backfilled.

"If we hadn't all made a stink and gone to the media and made such a big deal about it, I believe it would have just been quietly left as is," she told CBC's Radio West.

BCEHS, which runs the ambulance service in B.C., said Thursday it is committed to serving the whole province.

"We take the concerns raised by the mayor of Stewart very seriously and are committed to doing everything we can to provide consistent coverage in this area," media relations manager Bowen Osoko said in an emailed statement.

BCEHS did not immediately respond to news of the backfilled paramedics on Friday.

'Not sustainable': paramedics union

The paramedics' union said having only two employees regularly available to staff an ambulance 24/7 is a safety concern.

"It's just not sustainable on any level," said Ian Tait, communications director for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. 

"The burnout, the stress, the physical and mental burden that comes with, not being able to disconnect — you always have a pager tied to your hip," he said.

He noted it's difficult to backfill rural areas, especially when surrounding communities aren't necessarily well-staffed either.

Tait advocated for full-time paramedic positions, which he said would make it easier to recruit staff to rural areas, as opposed to the on-call "pager pay" system. 

"We see these challenges throughout British Columbia in rural and remote areas, and quite frankly, in urban areas as well."

Brand Danuser agreed with the call for full-time paramedics.

"If [service disruption] happens again, I will be screaming and yelling again, because it's not sustainable. It can't happen. We need to have full-time coverage — full-time, all the time."