Wake up B.C., value your paramedics

[tmrinas]

Courier-Islander – Friday, April 03, 2009

(A letter to the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, published here by request.)

I would firstly like to say that I am totally with you guys and all the things that you stand for as individuals. I am from London in the UK, and have lived in Vancouver for nearly two years now. I am a qualified EMT (Primary Care Paramedic ) (PCP) and had worked for the London Ambulance Service (LAS), for six and a half years. During my time with the LAS, I attended the London terrorist bombings, multiple shootings, stabbings, suicides, birthed babies at home and in the back of my ambulance, picked up pieces of bodies from on and under train tracks, and of course the rest of society could throw at me.

I work at St Paul’s Hospital as a porter/ward aide, I am not allowed to use my skills as a PCP in any way, shape or form. I need a certificate or a diploma to do anything other than porter and stack shelves with the very equipment and medical dressings that I once used in a very different way.

I contacted the British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) way back in 2005 when we decided to move to your lovely city of Vancouver. I contacted your Human resources department and visited them in Victoria trying to ascertain whether or not I would be able to transfer my skills to your country, or as it happens, to your province. I was informed that even if I had the Advanced Life Support (ALS) certificate, I would not be able to gain employment with them without a long drawn out process (approx. 1-2 years) as my qualification was not recognized here in BC, and I would have to speak to the licensing board in Victoria to sort that out. Therefore when I was offered the chance of sitting the exam in the UK with the LAS, I turned them down, as by that time we had already started the emigration process to move to Canada. But as it happens, the policy has changed here now and I could have gained employment as an ALS Paramedic in Vancouver due to the shortage. (Hindsight is a wonderful thing).

As a ward aide at St Paul’s Hospital, I earn $19.34 per hour, using the minimum of my brain capacity. As a PCP I would get $19.24 per hour. Yeah that makes sense!!

I recently contacted the HR department once again to clarify a few things that I had heard from working in the health service here in Vancouver. To my disappointment I found out that they were all true!

If I managed to get a position with the BCAS:

1. I would be expected to work in the interior of BC for at least three years before being able to gain full time employment in Vancouver or the Lower Mainland.

2. I would only be guaranteed eight shifts a month at a designated station.

3. If I was lucky enough to be earn a job at a station that had accommodation (ie. bunk) it would be free. But any other stations and I would have to find my own bed for the period of the shifts, and pay for them.

4. I would also have to pay my own fuel and ferry fees if necessary.

5. OH! And not forgetting, whilst at these stations, I would only be paid $2 an hour whilst I am waiting for that all important call from a member of the public. And then of course I would get that amazing pay of $19.24.

Please tell me, how are you supposed to make a living from doing this job?

As a paramedic I am expected to drive at speed through and around traffic with my lights and sirens blaring, trying to anticipate whether or not the cars in front and to the left and right of me are going to see or hear me and hopefully stop. When I get there, are the police going to be there first to get that gun or knife away from the assailant, or am I going to be the one that gets the brunt of it today?

Am I really going to be able to sleep tonight as every time that I close my eyes, I see the horrific injuries and hear the screams of the family trapped in the car or in the burning upstairs window.

It’s hard enough to do this job sometimes when you are paid a decent wage, but for $19.24 an hour, and that’s if you are lucky, and have a full time job.

Wake up BC, value your Emergency Ambulances and the staff that man them.

John Earing

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