The Tri-Cities will have an additional ambulance on the streets soon.
The vehicle will be put into service immediately with available staff while the Ministry of Health begins recruitment for permanent, full-time paramedics. The ambulance will be operating on a full-time basis within three months.
Last week, the provincial government also announced that Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge would be getting an additional ambulance after an analysis of ambulance call data and demand projections identified the two areas as having the greatest need.
In the Tri-Cities, call volumes have seen a slight increase in the past three years. The median lights-and-siren response time has stayed the same or also increased slightly.
Maple Ridge has two ambulances and is experiencing one of the highest increases in ambulance calls of any city in B.C. The number of high-acuity or lights-and-siren calls has gone up by 36% in the past three years, from a monthly average of 139 in 2013 to 190 this year.
BC Emergency Health Services employs a regional dynamic deployment model, which dispatches cars on a regional basis according to availability.
The Maple Ridge ambulance is expected to provide additional benefits to the Tri-Cities
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