Paramedics deserve equal treatment
Provincial petition is right, first responders just as valuable as police officers and firefighters
Ihave, on more than one occasion, phoned 911 dispatch. All but one of those calls were on behalf of others.
The one time I did call for myself was on a cold January night a few years back. I was out on a run, when it came to my attention that I might be having a stroke. I tried to remember the acronym we’ve all been taught for just such an emergency, but my brain couldn’t move itself beyond the singular notion that I was going to die in sweatpants.
The dispatcher told me to wait where I was and help was on its way.
Firefighters arrived first. Three of them stepped out of their big red truck and approached me with a lack of urgency that I found oddly reassuring. They surrounded me and started asking questions. A small crowd of looky-loos gathered. I felt like Joseph Merrick.
One of the firefighters — the one I presumed was in charge — performed a number of roadside tests to determine the status of my existence. He was quite jolly and comforting. I felt safe in his care. I made a joke about spontaneous combustion. He laughed — politely.
A few minutes later, the paramedics arrived. After a brief consult with the firefighters, they escorted me into their ambulance.
The care I received was professional and thorough, though less nurturing than my experience with the firefighters minutes earlier. The paramedics dealt with my concerns coldly and clinically. We talked only briefly en route to the hospital.
I was reminded of this encounter recently when I read reporter Nick Eagland’s report in the Sunday Province on a petition to have British Columbia’s paramedics granted the same bargaining rights, wages and resources as police and firefighters. The petition needs the signature of 10 per cent of registered voters in each of the province’s 85 electoral districts if this draft bill for equality is to move forward.
As a journalist, I don’t sign petitions, but if I did, I’d sign this one.
Looking at the issue from a macro perspective, there is so much to be considered — budgets, labour agreements, provincial laws. But from a micro perspective — zooming in on the key issue of whether or not one service is as valuable to British Columbians as the others — I’m firmly on the side of damn straight it is.
In fact, this seems so obvious to me, I’m at a loss to imagine how anyone could successfully argue otherwise. Moreover, this seems especially obvious these days, given the work paramedics are doing on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis.
When I was having my stroke that wasn’t a stroke, I recall the overwhelming relief at being in the back of that ambulance and in the care of such conscientious professionals. I can’t say I liked the two people helping me all that much. As I said, I found them cold and overly clinical. But this wasn’t about engendering popularity. This was about making sure I lived long enough to experience at least one more breakfast.
I consider that a remarkably valuable service — every bit as valuable as anything I’d expect from a police officer or firefighter.
One final note, if I may: That acronym used as a mnemonic to help in the diagnosis of a stroke is FAST (Facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulties, time to call 911).