BC Emergency Health Services operates three integrated, dispatch operations centres located in Vancouver, Langford (Victoria area) and Kamloops.
These centres manage all 911 calls and coordinate the emergency responses across the province. They operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are the first point of contact for people who need emergency pre-hospital care.
Since 2019, improved technology allows emergency medical call-takers at any of the three dispatch centres to answer and process 911 calls from anywhere in the system, helping ensure faster and more efficient service.
The Vancouver Dispatch Operations Centre receives 911 calls and dispatches ambulances to over 30 communities. Its coverage stretches east to Mission and Agassiz, south to Manning Park in the Fraser Canyon and north to Pemberton and Lillooet. In 2025, the centre responded over 323,000 emergency calls
It is also home to two specialized teams:
The PTCC coordinates the movement of patients between hospital facilities across BC. This includes coordinating and providing both air and ground critical care transport. In 2025, The PTCC coordinated about 80,000 transfers, primarily within the province but sometimes internationally.
To alleviate system pressures and help patients access care sooner, BCEHS launched the Clinical Hub (2022) to develop innovative ways to connect non-urgent patients to the right care, freeing up emergency ambulances to respond to the sickest patients.
The Clinical Hub is responsible for the planning, implementation and evaluation of patient care initiatives using innovative clinician roles, systems and processes to bring change to the status quo. The Clinical Hub's initiatives focus on improving the way BCEHS delivers support for both paramedics and patients alike, with a province-wide portfolio of clinicians, response units and pathways to ensure our patients receive the right care the first time they contact 911.
Read more about the
evolution of the Clinical Hub and about
winning the 2024 Innovation Award.
Within the Clinical Hub is
CliniCall, an innovative 24/7 peer support program staffed by Paramedic Specialists (Advanced Care Paramedics or Critical Care Paramedics). They provide:
- Clinical advice during high-risk events
- Support secondary virtual assessments
- Access to Emergency Physicians Online and other clinicians (Critical Care Paramedic Advisor, Infant Transport Team Advisor, Secondary Triage technicians and Link and Referral Patient Navigators)
The Kamloops Dispatch Operations Centre serves all communities outside of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, throughout the Interior and Northern BC, covering one of the largest geographical regions in North America. In 2025 it received over 161,000 calls and dispatched ambulances to 98 communities in BC.
The Langford Dispatch Operations Centre serves Vancouver Island, Powell River and the Gulf Islands. In 2025, it received over 133,300 emergency calls.
BCEHS dispatch operations centres are staffed by emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) and emergency medical call-takers (EMCTs). These highly trained professionals work closely with partner agencies, including police, fire, search and rescue, and the coast guard, to ensure that British Columbians have access to timely and effective care.
More than a calm and reassuring voice on the phone, EMCTs and EMDs are the first point of contact in life-or-death situtations. They:
- Gather critical information for paramedic and hospitals.
- Dispatch the right resources, including ambulances, air ambulances and specialized response teams.
- Stay in contact with first responders to ensure the right resources arrive at the scene as quickly as possible.
- Provide emergency life-saving instructions over the phone, such as CPR guidance or childbirth support, until help arrives.
When BCEHS receives a 911 call, EMCTs and EMDs use an internationally recognized medical priority dispatch system to quickly assess how serious the patient's condition is and respond with the appropriate help. This helps ensure the most urgent cases are handled first, similar to how patients are prioritized in a hospital emergency department.
The BC Ambulance Service prioritizes how ambulances are dispatched based on the caller’s description of the nature and extent of the medical condition or injury.
Not all situations require lights-and-sirens driving. In fact, more than 90% of ambulance transports do not require an emergency driving response.
Since 2018, BCEHS has used the Clincial Response Model (the CRM) to better match the right type of response—paramedics, ambulances and other services—to each patient's needs.
