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‘Way past acceptable,’ says PoCo fire chief of Friday night wait time

92-year-old and firefighters waited two & a half hours
Fire chief
Port Coquitlam Fire Chief Nick Delmonico

A Port Coquitlam man waited close to two and a half hours for paramedics to arrive after he fell and was injured Friday night, a wait PoCo Fire Chief Nick Delmonico called “a new record.”

Firefighters arrived on scene at 7:04 p.m. to find a 92-year-old victim who appeared to have hurt his hip. The ambulance eventually showed up at 9:24 p.m. 

Delmonico said that while his crews are first responders, unlike paramedics, they do not have the ability to provide pain medication or transport patients to the hospital.

“We are essentially sitting there babysitting,” he said, adding that many of the patients firefighters help are in severe pain. 

He said he wants to see local officials take a larger role in how BC Ambulance prioritizes its calls. Delmonico added that Friday’s incident could have easily become more complicated had a fire occurred while apparatus and equipment were committed to the medical call. 

“BC Ambulance is prioritizing our calls,” he said. “We aren’t allowed to leave a patient’s side while we are there. What if we get a full structure fire while we are sitting somewhere with somebody for two and a half hours?”

This is not the first time Delmonico has raised the issue around paramedic wait times. During a presentation to council in 2014, he noted that while firefighter response times were down significantly in Port Coquitlam, the number of times crews are forced to wait at a call had increased, in large part due to the ambulance issue. 

In the last two years, Delmonico said he has noticed some improvement as the ambulance service has reorganized and added new vehicles and staff. But he noted that PoCo firefighters are still having to routinely wait for paramedics to arrive. 

“The concern for me still are these massive waits,” he said. “It is way past acceptable.”

Jodi Jensen, the chief operating officer of BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS), which oversees the BC Ambulance Service, apologized to the patient and “wished him a swift recovery” in a statement emailed to The Tri-City News on Tuesday.

She said that evening was particularly busy for paramedics in the Lower Mainland and that BCEHS would be reviewing the incident.

“BCEHS triages patients much like a hospital emergency room, caring for the most critical patients first,” she said. “We will be reviewing this call and encourage the patient to contact our Patient Care Quality Office so that we can discuss the particular of this incident with him directly.”

gmckenna@tricitynews.com

@gmckennaTC