Firefighters shouldn't have to fill gaps in ambulance service, says Dawson City fire chief

The fire chief in Dawson City, Yukon, say the territorial government needs to step up and address the current state of emergency medical services (EMS) in his community.

Mike Masserey told CBC News that with local ambulance service often unavailable after six p.m. and on weekends, the fire department and RCMP sometimes pick up the slack and get dispatched to calls where an ambulance is actually needed. He said that's a liability for his department.

"EMS, you know, is on-duty, off-duty," he said. "We the fire service never know whether the ambulance is on-duty or off-duty, and neither do our citizens. EMS has the equipment. We don't. They have the vehicles to transport. We don't," Masserey said.

Currently, Dawson is served by two full-time primary care paramedics working five days a week, with an additional four auxiliary on call (AOC) positions. The ambulance in Dawson runs on a Monday to Friday daytime schedule. If a medical emergency occurs in the evening or on the weekend, the public is left with a few options. They can find their own way to the local hospital, they can wait until an on-call paramedic is dispatched — if there are actually paramedics available — or they can wait for paramedics to be flown in from Whitehorse.

If 911 is called for immediate service, either the local department or RCMP will respond.

The department of Health and Social Services issued a statement to CBC News saying the Dawson EMS operates with a "robust strategy" to ensure emergency services are always available at all times, including evenings and weekends.

It said when there's a coverage gap, EMS has different strategies which might include using medevacs, helping people find alternative transport options, or finding other emergency responders to help out.

Masserey said his department is often called for lift assists, where a person needs to be moved or assisted with their mobility. Masserey explained to CBC News that calls that require a lift assist aren't always communicated that way by 911 dispatch. It could be described to the fire department as an "extrication."

"For the fire service everywhere an 'extrication' means that we're usually going to a motor vehicle accident," he said. "Some kind of wreck where we're going to be using our extrication equipment. Our jaws. Our lifters to get somebody out of a place that they're locked in... but when they phone in and ask for an extrication and it's to help a paramedic carry a person, that's unacceptable."

Masserey said that during an extrication call, up to 11 firefighters are sent to respond. They're often equipped with a trailer full of equipment. He said if a real extrication call were to then come in, there would be very few firefighters, if any, to respond, and with no equipment.

Gerard Dinn, Yukon's director of Emergency Medical Services, declined a request for an interview with CBC News.

Masserey said Dinn did recently send him a draft memorandum of understanding about emergency services. Masserey said he hasn't had a good chance to read through it yet but there are some things he wants to see outlined before any signatures hit the paper, such as more trained EMS staff or a 24-hour ambulance service in Dawson.

He said the fire department is there to help citizens, but there are some things they can't do. 

"Our guys signed up as firefighters, not paramedics." 

Former Dawson resident Karen Larsen said she received a call that no daughter ever wants to get.

"My mom had a stroke," she told CBC News. 

Larsen who now lives in Nanaimo, B.C, said her mother's neighbour in Dawson notified Larsen of what happened.

"While they were waiting with her I phoned the ambulance and mentioned my mom ... needs an ambulance and I was told that there was no ambulance available," she said. "They said the best they could do was try to scramble a team together in Whitehorse and fly a team up."

Larsen said she told the 911 dispatcher that option was unacceptable.

"I was pretty darn upset," she said. "So I had to scramble to call some old friends to have them go over to the house and stay with my mom and in turn called the RCMP and see if they could step up to the plate and get over there."

Larsen is also a former ambulance attendant for the community.

She said she fully understands staff shortages and burnout but she said it's the responsibility of the Yukon government to ensure emergency medical services are consistently available to all Yukoners, all of the time.

"There definitely needs to be somebody with a radio, 24/7," she said. "People don't get sick between certain times of the day, and incidents don't happen between certain times of the day. Things happen all the time."