The report highlights key milestones, initiatives, and challenges, and looks to the future as we strive to constantly improve how we serve the people of British Columbia.
“This past year has seen increased demand placed upon BCEHS as the number of 911 events continues to rise, as does their severity,” Board Chair Jim Chu noted in his report, which details the fiscal year period between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024.
“BCEHS has had to adapt and rise to meet those challenges, and I am inspired by the innovations that are occurring, which have enabled the organization to remain responsive while also improving the overall patient experience.”
Executive Vice President and Chief Ambulance Officer Leanne Heppell echoes Jim’s comments.
“The past year has been one of great progress and change at BCEHS. We have built on last year’s record hiring numbers by recruiting and hiring even more staff this year to support the increased demand on our systems” Leanne writes. “We grew to 6,000 employees across the province last year, and now have more employees in permanent positions than we have previously, and we are working to boost retention and provide opportunities for staff to continue learning and growing.”
This report is a tangible example of our commitment to transparency and accountability, providing statistics and stories about our call volume and response, our hiring efforts, our work to support our staff, and much more.
Read the 2023/2024 Progress Report
here.
We continued to build on proactive recruitment efforts to substantially increase hiring and improve staffing levels, attending 519 proactive recruitment events in 169 communities this past year. This work helped facilitate record hiring, with 734 new paramedics joining BCEHS this past fiscal year, a four per cent increase over 2022/2023 and substantially more than previous years.
In addition to hiring more staff, we now have more staff in permanent positions. In 2017/2018, only 41 per cent of paramedics were in permanent roles. Six years later, after adding more than 1,700 new paramedic positions, 62 per cent of paramedics in B.C. have a regular, permanent full-time or part-time position.
One of our key focus areas in recent years has been improving staffing and support in rural and remote regions, and we are pleased to report that nearly 70 per cent of our new hires this past year are working at rural and remote stations to support communities’ needs.
The Scope of Practice expansion project, which expands the skills and tools that paramedics are legally authorized to use, continued in 2023/2024, with ever-growing numbers of paramedics pursuing and completing further education that allows them to offer increased care to patients. More than 300 driver-only employees completed their education to upgrade to emergency medical responders (EMRs), while nearly 600 EMRs had upskilled within their license level. Scope of practice programming for primary care paramedics (PCPs) was rolled out later in 2024, while corresponding education for advanced care paramedics (ACPs) is in development. Nearly all critical care paramedics (CCPs) had completed their education by the end of the 2023/2024 fiscal year.
BCEHS’ award-winning Clinical Hub continued to grow this past year, adding more clinicians to the team and expanding its programs to better support low acuity patients. The department is responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating patient care initiatives that use innovative roles, systems, and processes to ensure that patients receive the right care the first time they contact the 911 system. The team supported new partnerships with urgent primary care centres (UPCCs) around the province to provide additional options for care for low acuity patients and expanded the Link and Referral Unit (LARU) program to three new destinations – Victoria, Nanaimo, and Prince George – in spring 2024.
The Community Paramedicine program was strengthened over the last year to better fit the needs of the communities and people it serves, including introducing standalone, full-time community paramedics (CPs). CPs complete home visits and provide virtual wellness checks for patients, and their work is especially valuable to support aging individuals in underserved communities who may have chronic or complex health needs.
BCEHS’ First Responder program continues to facilitate agreements with agencies including fire departments and other first responder services to provide basic life-saving support until BCEHS paramedics are able to take over patient care. This work involves extensive outreach and collaboration in communities throughout the province, including engaging with many Indigenous communities and First Nations.
The Indigenous Health team grew substantially in 2023/2024, including hiring the program’s first-ever Executive Director in January 2024. One of the department’s main focuses is supporting the work of the Indigenous Health Strategy, which is a key priority in BCEHS’ Strategic Plan. The Indigenous Health team works closely with the Community Paramedicine and the First Responder programs to support communities around B.C. to better meet their health care needs.
