Kamloops firefighters practicing CPR on a dummy. (Photo via Kamloops Fire and Rescue)

The Chief of Kamloops Fire and Rescue is asking the City to add a new medical response unit to Station 2 in Brocklehurst, to take the pressure of existing crews who have been dealing with a growing number of medical calls, which covers everything from heart attacks to overdoses.

Ken Uzeloc says the idea is to operate this medical unit across parts of the eastern part of the North Shore and Downtown Kamloops between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., allowing other four-member engine crews to respond to other-non medical calls during the day.

“Basically, its looking at right sizing the response,” Uzeloc told Radio NL. “So instead of having four firefighters on a large fire-engine responding to these calls, it would be two people on a smaller SUV or a pickup truck responding to these calls.”

“This was directed after providing some updates to council on our medical response and they asked me to bring back what something could look like for them to evaluate.”

This new medical unit is one of eight supplemental budget items being put forward this year, and it comes with a price-tag of just over $1-million. Uzeloc says most of that amount – $953,000 – would go towards hiring the equivalent of six firefighters, so the team could operate seven days a week.

“If we have two people on the truck and they’re working four days on and then four days off, you need two crews,” Uzeloc said. “It’s two people on the truck on two different crews, that four people, and then the other two people are cover those for vacation and sickness, to make sure you’ve got bums in the seat when you need it.”

“Staff may rotate through those positions and spend some time on that truck and then move to other stations in other positions to reduce the impact that we’ve seen on firefighters repeatedly going to these [medical] calls.”

He also said this new unit will also be available to help KFR during major incidents. They would be tasked with providing first aid to people affected, allowing fire trucks to deal with the other aspects of the emergency.

Asked about concerns about more downloading onto Kamloops taxpayers, as medical response is the responsibility of the provincial government, Uzeloc said there have been discussions between staff and council on some options that could be proposed to the province.

“However, we know that that system is challenged on a number of fronts both with paramedics availability but also paramedics waiting to offload patients at hospitals, and there is not an obligation for KFR to provide this service, but we also know if we’re not there to do that, it could mean significant impact on the citizens,” Uzeloc said.

“Right now if we get busy, we get to a point frequently where we have to inform BC Ambulance that we are unable to take any medical calls. Having this unit that is designated just for medical calls allows us to continue during those busy times and still be able to support our citizens and BC Ambulance.”

A breakdown of proposed costs for the new Kamloops Fire and Rescue medical unit. (Photo via City of Kamloops)