The Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience team helps BCEHS continue providing services during emergencies and other disruptions.
The team uses evidence-based analysis, indutrsy standards and best practices in disaster and emergency management to identify current and emerging risks. This work helps BCEHS maintain services or restore them 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 exceeds our ability to respond effectively, such as a tsunami affecting a populated area
- Staff shortages that make it difficult to operate ambulances or dispatch centres, such as during a pandemic when many employees are ill
- Reduced hospital capacity when hospitals are damaged or overwhelmed by patient demand, such as after a major earthquake in the Lower Mainland
- Transportation disruptions that affect major travel routes and access to communities, such as during large wildfires or floods
