The Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience team helps ensure that BCEHS can continue to provide services during emergencies and other disruptions.
The team uses evidence-based analysis of current and emerging trends, best practices and standards in disaster and emergency management. This work helps BCEHS maintain or restore services as quickly and efficiently as possible after a disaster.
For BCEHS, a disaster is any event that affects our ability to provide pre-hospital emergency care. Four main types of impacts can create these challenges:
- A large increase in patients that overwhelms our ability to respond effectively (for example, a tsunami affecting a populated area)
- Staff shortages that make it difficult to staff ambulances or dispatch centres (for example, during a pandemic when many employees are ill)
- Limited hospital capacity because hospitals are damaged or overwhelmed by patient demand (for example, after a major earthquake in the Lower Mainland)
- Transportation disruptions that affect major travel routes and access to communities (for example, during large wildfires or floods)
