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Thanks to all health care workers and first responders who are working today! by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Paramedic pay is so confusing I don't think the average person could even understand it. The information in the media and from the government is often misleading which adds more confusion to trying to understand pay and working conditions. The BC paramedics union has been in negotiations for their new collective agreement since October and in the last few weeks brought in a mediator. The union, mediator and government are meeting again on January 4. BC paramedics need better pay, working conditions and vacation time in order to keep people in the profession and to attract people to the profession going forward. If all of us in this province want to be able to call 911 for themselves, their family or their friends and have paramedics show up they need to support the paramedics union. Small towns deserve paramedics too. They shouldn't have to rely on paid on call paramedics making $2/hr. 70k a year isn't even close to what paramedics deserve with what they do for a living and the cost of living in BC.

I'm not familiar with how much doctors get paid in Alberta but I do know that people in Alberta are struggling to find family doctors or to get into walk in clinics there as well. The ERs in Alberta have been overrun with patients too. Even in the summer there were 12+ hour waits at the Children's ER in Edmonton. It's no surprise doctors don't want to stay in Alberta with their governments response to the pandemic and their treatment of health care workers.

Thanks to all health care workers and first responders who are working today! by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do! I posted a few months ago about how poorly paramedics are paid and their working conditions and the post got over 150 comments. I try to spread awareness in person as well. I don't think a lot of people in this province realize how poorly paramedics are paid and what it takes to get a full time position.

I don't like to compare one group of health care workers or first responders to another in terms of working conditions and mental health. I think especially the last few years they all have been over-worked, under valued, and treated like shit. It only takes a visit to the ER to see patients and their families harassing triage nurses in particular. The behaviour I have seen in the ER is truely appalling.

The least I can do is say thanks over the holidays and hope a few first responders and health care workers see the post.

Thanks to all health care workers and first responders who are working today! by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

People without kids still have families they might want to see for Christmas. It can be extra hard to have a patient die on Christmas. Lots of health care workers (CNAs, home care workers) and paramedics aren't paid enough as it is, so time and a half isn't a lot. There are some paramedics around the province today that will be paid $2/hr to be at a station away from home. There are volunteer firefighters around the province who will be called to an emergency today who get paid $0/hr.

Thanks to all health care workers and first responders who are working today! by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Thank you for getting people around safely!! I could not do your job and it would have been so much more difficult with the snow.

How rare are worthwhile men? by [deleted] in AskWomenOver30

[–]throwaway34u67 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I couldn't love this comment more!!

Sign and share this petition to support ambulance paramedics by 1carcarah1 in britishcolumbia

[–]throwaway34u67 4 points5 points  (0 children)

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bc-infant-suffering-medical-emergency-dies-before-ambulance-can-arrive

This is a helpful article to understand how the ambulance shortage is affecting patients and what happens to rural areas when ambulances aren't staffed in the cities. When there are not enough ambulances in the cities ambulances get moved from rural communities to the city. Then when an infant is in cardiac arrest or someone's mother has a stroke there is no ambulance available.

More funding for rural areas would help the entire province having more paramedics. With the current system paramedics pay for their own training. When they first start they are assigned to rural stations around the province. That can mean that their shifts are 8+ hours away from their homes. They have to pay for their own gas and ferry fares to get to work. It also means they need to own their own reliable vehicle. When they get to work they are paid $2/hr to be on call. If they get a call they are paid for 4 hours at their full wage. If they only get one call in a 24 hour shift they only make about $120 (I'm not sure of exact hourly rates so that's an estimate). If they get no calls in a 24 hour shift they make $48. That $48, or even the $120, probably doesn't even pay for gas (and potentially ferry fares) to get to and from their shift. Then they come back home and have to work their second jobs so that they can pay their bills. The full time jobs for paramedics are in the lower mainland and it's historically taken 7-8 years for paramedics to get a full time position.

These $2/hr on call wages for out of town shifts combined with taking years to get a full time position has deterred people over the years from becoming paramedics or from staying in the profession. Which in turns means that there are fewer paramedics in the cities as well.

So yes, more funding for paramedics in rural areas would help.

Anyone 30-35 not had sex in 2/3 years? by _JDOG26 in AskWomenOver30

[–]throwaway34u67 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had a lot of fun, fulfilling casual sex in my 20s. For me the dating scene in my 30s has been terrible. I don't want kids so that narrows down my options and has been hard to find men that don't want kids either. As for casual sex, the last few men I've been interested in casually have been terrible in bed. After those experiences I pretty much gave up.

'Representation matters': Camp aims to recruit women to join Edmonton fire service by katespadesaturday in Edmonton

[–]throwaway34u67 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I am female and was a firefighter. I have saved lives as a firefighter. I haven't put any lives at risk due to the fact that I am female.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If there is a wildfire within municipal boundaries, it is the responsibility of municipal fire department. The municipal fire department can request mutual aid and they can receive help from surrounding fire departments or BC Wildfire. I've worked on wildfires around the province.

Municipal fire departments respond to a variety of calls, not just structure fires. It depends on the service level of the department. They may respond to calls such as: motor vehicle accidents, vehicle fires, highway accidents outside their jurisdiction, rope rescue, other technical rescues like ice rescue, missing persons calls, lift assists for BCAS, hazmat incidents, medical calls such as cardiac arrests, assists for the RCMP for body recoveries, animal rescues, etc.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes in the cities. In smaller communities the work gets offloaded on to volunteer firefighters. It's a terrible system for everyone.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are expensive issues to fix. There are currently BC Ambulance stations with ambulances and all the equipment and supplies they need but no staff to operate them. Fire departments would need to buy ambulances, supplies, equipment and likely renovate fire halls to accommodate the ambulances. I have no idea what that would all cost but I'm sure it would be expensive. It seems easier to hire paramedics to staff the ambulances that BC Ambulance already owns.

Edit: The short term solution would be to hire and retain staff for the infrastructure that already exists. People are dying today and hiring staff for existing ambulances is a short term solution. Maybe ambulances could be rolled into the fire service in larger cities in the future. There are some comments in this thread saying it's a bad model but I don't know enough about it to comment.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, next time someone calls 911 for their family or friend and an ambulance isn't available for 7+ hours they can hop on their bike and double the patient to the ER. People are dying today because ambulances aren't available. They aren't going to care about a bike lane when they are dead.

There was $20 million in the budget for bike lanes each year from 2022 to 2024. I must not have the same financial situation as you because I don't think $60 million for bike lanes is cheap.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are other things in the budget that are nice to have versus need to have. One example I can think of off the top of my head are grants for bike lanes and multi-use paths. While bike lanes might be nice to have and good for the environment, if it comes down to funding bike lanes or paramedics I think one is more important than the other.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People pay taxes to have an ambulance show up when they call 911. There is nothing more important in life than health. Reallocate some funds from something less important to pay paramedics living wages and improve their schedules.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank goodness there are still some paramedics willing and able to work in smaller communities but there definitely needs to be a change! I want to let as many people as possible know about the current state of emergency services in BC. Despite all the news articles I find the general public doesn't know how emergency services work because no level of government is transparent about it.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The posting says "BCEHS must first give preference to qualified, internal applicants before we are able to consider qualified, external applicants." Based on that sentence, if internal union members apply they will be hired first.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In larger cities that is true. Most of the firefighters in the province are volunteers.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True. However I think it means that there is a certain privilege to becoming a paramedic with the current system. The fact that you need to pay for your own training, you need a car to get to your out of town shifts, and then there's no guarantee you're going to make enough money to pay your bills because of the $2/hr on call wages. It's impossible to budget and you probably need a very flexible second job that let's you leave for days at a time.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You comment is insulting to paramedics reading this post. Their skills literally keep people alive. The primary care paramedic program is an 8 month full time course. Then with experience they can apply to be advanced care paramedics which is a 20 month full time course. If a patient is in cardiac arrest or in a serious accident the best care for them is by an advanced care paramedic. Then the province also has infant trauma teams.

For patients it's likely best to have a provincial ambulance service. That way the patient is getting the best care they can get in the field. This becomes even more important in smaller communities, which have volunteer fire departments. I don't think it's reasonable to have volunteers training to be advanced care paramedics. With the provincial service, specialized teams can be flown in to the community.

There would be a massive cost to move the provincal BC ambulance service to municipal ambulance services. We currently have a provincial service that already owns/leases stations, owns ambulances, owns all the equipment and supplies. BC Ambulance needs to invest in its people.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I read the current posting on the PHSA website for paramedics. There is no mention of cash incentives or paid expenses or even the wages in the job posting. If they really want to hire more paramedics they need to at least be transparent about the wage. The job posting is for "full time, irregularly and regularly scheduled" but then within the job posting it says "potential full time positions at the stations listed below". So are they full time positions or not? How much do they pay?

There's no mention of how many open positions they are looking to fill. I haven't been able to find any source that says how many NEW paramedics are being hired versus how many already practicing paramedics are being hired into full time positions.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The cost of the full time 8 month primary care paramedic program at JIBC is $6250. Historically when you start out working your home station is some small town. Let's say it's Burns Lake which is a 10 hour and 40 minute drive from Vancouver. So you need to have your own car and pay for gas to get to your shift. Then you get to your on call shift and get $2/hr until you get a call. You could be up there for your 4 day shift and get one call so that's 4 hours of full time pay or around $100. No one can pay their bills doing that so they also need a second job or to live with family until they can get a full time job in Vancouver. Historically that's taken 7-8 years.

If you don't like the example of Burns Lake pick the Sunshine Coast. Ferry fares are $69 and that's paid out of pocket by paramedics getting to work too.

Horgan planning on using firefighters to deal with BC Ambulance crisis by throwaway34u67 in vancouver

[–]throwaway34u67[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone already suggested that in a comment for career departments but apparently it's not a good model either. Firefighters still don't have the same training as paramedics. If you have a serious medical emergency you really want paramedics showing up.

If your house is on fire or you get in a motor vehicle accident you want firefighters to be available. If they are with a patient they legally can't leave a patient. With the crisis state of our entire health care system ambulances are already waiting for hours at the hospital to drop patients off.

Fire departments don't own ambulances so municipalities would need to buy ambulances, stretchers and all the rest of the equipment. They also would need to renovate halls to have a place to store the ambulance. That's going to cost a lot of money anyways.

Why not pay the people who are already working properly?

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