The president of the union representing BC paramedics says the call came in Thursday night for an infant in cardiac arrest in the Barriere area, about a 45-minute drive north of Kamloops. Troy Clifford, president of Ambulance Paramedics of BC, said the ambulance that would normally serve the area was located in Kamloops, helping fill a staffing shortage there. The mayor of the area told CTV News that an eight-month-old baby died. He also said local officials are not regularly informed about ambulance staffing issues and stressed that he did not want to speculate on whether response time was a factor in the child’s death. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t have ambulance service Thursday night because we have some significant gaps in service,” said Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer. “We know of cases where people have had serious problems and died because the ambulance wasn’t there in other communities,” he added. “I don’t want us to be in that situation, if not I suppose, when we should have that level of support that everyone in the province deserves.” In two recent cases, residents of Ashcroft, BC—another small town in the interior—died while waiting for ambulance service. On August 14, a man went into cardiac arrest just 200 meters from the community’s ambulance station, but the nearest staffed ambulance did not arrive for 29 minutes, according to Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden. The man did not survive. Four weeks prior to this incident, an Ashcroft senior died of cardiac arrest at a time when the local emergency room was closed due to staff shortages and an available ambulance was in another community. In response to the Barriere incident, BC Emergency Health Services released a statement confirming the call is under review. “Our deepest condolences go out to the family and community for this heartbreaking loss,” the statement said. “The nearest available ambulance was dispatched immediately and assistance was requested from local firefighters. We have initiated a review and will work with the Patient Care Quality Office to contact this family to address any concerns or questions they may have.” BCEHS did not respond to multiple questions from CTV News about how far away the nearest available ambulance was at the time, or how long it took to arrive.
