Dispatch dispute resolved

THE CITY’s dispute with centralized ambulance dis-
patchers in Kamloops scems to be resolved,

; City council called for an inquiry by the health minister

into what they believed was a failure by the dispatchers to

notify Terrace Fire Dept. first responders as often as they

should have, .

Since firefighters are at the hall all the time and am-
bulance attendants sometimes have to be paged in from
elsewhere, there’s a possibility that an injured person could
wait longer than necessary for treatment if first responders
aren’t dispatched,

Councillor David Hull said meetings this month with

senior B.C. Ambulance Service officials has resulted in the
organization taking Terrace’s concems very seriously,
. “I myself was personally quite satisfied with these
people, their actions and the promises that were made,”
Hull said. ‘I feel satisfied that steps are being taken that
will correct the situation,”’

The fire department here bad claimed that in as many as
20 per. cent of incidents the first responders ‘weren't
nolified. ,

“It’s clear from a cursory took at the report that there
were preblems,’’ Hull said.

He noted the number of times first responders weren't
notified dramatically dropped off in December after the
city raised the issue.

“Tt would appear that there has been a communication
problem for the biggest part,”* Hull added.

The centralized dispatch had excuses for the trouble,
Hull said, but they were not acceptable ones.

Demand soars
at food bank

_ RECENT CUTS in social items because it has two
assistance payments are large freezers.

translating into higher num-
bers at the Terrace Churches
Food Bank.

Food bank organizer
Christine Simmons says it
distributed 508 bags from
Jan, 15-18,

That’s quite an increase
over the 419 bags distrib-
uted Jast November before
the cuts took hold.

Simmons believes the in-
crease is due to lower social
assistance payments which '
came into place recently,

‘We had a few more
~ singles and quite a few new
people that haven’! used the

food bank before,’’ said |
Simmons.

The food bank did receive
a boost this month in the
form of groceries from a
comer store that recently
closed.

Hiilliop Grocery owner
Ron Dallyn was forced to
close the store’s doors last

week,

"We took all ihe left over
groceries and gave it all to
the Salvation Ammy,’’ he
said,

The food will help restock
the food bank’s shelves for
its February distribution pe-
riod.

‘The Terrace Anti-Poverty
Group also hands out emer-
gency rations to people who
can’t afford to buy food.

This service is often used by
people who find they run
out of food between food
bank pericds.

Unlike the food bank, the
anti-poverty society accepts
donations of perishable food

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He said Kamloops dispatchers may occasionally forget
that Terrace has a strong first responder program and that
its members want to go out on mare types of calls than do
most first responders elsewhere.

“Terrace wants to go out just about every time just in
case they can help out,’’ Hull explained. “They’ve made
some very serious promises to us,” he said of the dispatch
centre, ‘It looks like it’s going to be fixed.”

kkk kk

Fire chief Randy Smith says a helicopter rescue of in-
jured snowmobilers on Sterling Mountain Jan. 21 went
perfectly — contrary to our report of last week,

“It worked exactly as per the policy,” Smith said last
Thursday,

With helicopters costing $1,800 an hour of taxpayers’
money, rescuers try not to send them out unless necessary,

A couple of phone calls had to be made to determine
where these people were,” Smith said.

Terrace Search and Rescue's Dave Jephson had earlier
said confusion among dispatchers as to the location of the
snowmobilers caused some ‘‘frustrating’’ delays in send-
ing helicopters to the site, ‘

Once the decision was made that a helicopter was
needed, the rescue went extremely quickly, said Smith.
The twe patients were at hospital an hour and 45 minutes
after the first call was received by the RCMP,

“It worked very well,”’ Smith said, adding the rescue
shouldn’! have been linked to previous problems between
fire department Brst responders and ambulance dispatch in
Kamloops.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 31, 1996 - A7

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