Emergency dispatchers need more education, says Lillooet mayor

The mayor of Lillooet wants more done to help educate ambulance dispatchers who serveher community.

Marg Lampman outlined her concerns in a letter to the B.C. Coroner's Service, and sent copies to B.C. Emergency Health Services andthe Lillooet RCMP detachment.

She saysthere have been cases where people have died because of the response times.

"It's a combination of factors. One, we feel, is the education needed for the dispatchers who are located in urban centres, who have to deal with emergency response to an area like Lillooet that is mountainous [with] steep drop-offs," Lampman saidtoDaybreakKamloopsguest host Doug Herbert.

More education

"It isn't the amount of kilometres to a site, it's the amount of time it takes you."

Lampman would like to see better mapping technology made available to the people who are sending out the emergency crews.

"Perhaps when they click on an area where an incident is happening that another pop-up information window should appear and it would give them the relevant information like mountainous area, drop-offs [of] 250 metres, distance to the nearest rescue is 1.5 hours," she said.

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Shealso wantsto see videos of the more remote areas collected so they could be used to give dispatchers a bird's eye view of the road conditions.

"We're not here to criticise the dispatchers," said Lampman.

"They have a very difficult job and they are as concerned with saving lives and getting proper men and equipment there as anyone else."

Lillooet fire chief Darren Oike agrees.

"Everybody's got to take ownership in this," he said.

In his role, Oike also works as the emergency program coordinator for the area and is often on scene of crashes and emergencies within the District of Lillooet.

Oike supports the idea of better mapping and increased education for dispatchers. He saysthere have been times when accident victims have been affected by delays when emergency crews arrive at an accident site.

"The 'golden hour' to get them to the hospital is definitely what we strive for, but it can be hampered by that for sure."

The first hour after a trauma is commonly called the "golden hour" because it's during that window where emergency treatments are the most successful.

Shared responsibility

Oike would like to see a partnership with the provincial government to collect more information about the roads and topography to better inform first responders.

Currently, B.C. Emergency Health Services uses digital maps that are updated every three months through the Digital Road Atlas maintained by GeoBC.

In a statement, the service said"dispatchers also use GPS technology and/or Google Earth images...however in some more remote areas of the province, topographical maps, GPS, and/or Google Earth images may not be available, accurate or very detailed."

B.C. Emergency Health Services saysbettergeographical information on remote areas of the province would benefit all emergency responders.

Oike saysit's not enough to talk about these issues:he'd like to see people in rural communities take responsibility for creating a better system.

"We as the first responders got to be more diligent about... meeting with government, expressing our concerns and coming up with the solutions as opposed to just complaining about it."

With files from CBC Radio One'sDaybreakKamloops

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Emergency dispatchers need more education: Lillooet mayor