The video below features community paramedics, patients and health care providers from across BC who explain the importance of community paramedicine’s collaborative, proactive approach.
“A lot of people access the health system through 9-1-1,” explains Linda Lupini, executive vice president, PHSA and BC Emergency Health Services.
“It would be much more beneficial for patients to be seen prior to something becoming a medical emergency.”
The aim is to provide people with the care they need at home in their communities, and minimize hospital visits.
Community paramedics serve rural and remote communities with limited access to health care; aging populations living with chronic and complex diseases; and a heavy reliance on the ambulance service.
The program provides stable employment for paramedics in these communities, and helps close gaps in health care.
“When you’re living alone and you have a chronic illness, it’s comforting to know that they will be here once a week, and more if I need them – and I can always call them,” says Diane Wilkinson Cosnett, a patient from Kaslo, BC. “It’s just a comfort to know that.”
