Campaign Launch

Dear Members;

The Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of BC are a dynamic organization of professionals. On behalf of those we are privileged to serve, we strive to foster a culture of delivering the highest quality of paramedicine and emergency dispatching. We advocate for improved working conditions, health and economic status for our membership, while striving to be an integral part of the solution to British Columbia’s evolving Public safety and healthcare challenges. 

In line with our strategic plan and direction by our membership, we have been working hard on putting together a new public relations campaign. It’s with great enthusiasm and excitement that we announce the launching of our Public relations campaign designed to raise awareness, of who we are and the essential service we provide. The campaign shows our stakeholders that we the Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of BC are the front line medical professionals that they should have within 8 minutes and 59 seconds in a medical emergency. The campaign also raises awareness that we are in need of more Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers.

Our goal

While we acknowledge and appreciate the recent funding announcement made by the Provincial Government, we know that there is a lot more work to be done. As the most highly trained, frontline medical professionals, we deserve further government support and adequate funding for required resources. These resources are critical to ensuring our workloads return to a reasonable level, which means less paramedic and dispatcher fatigue and better patient care.

The campaign

The campaign is launching today, Tuesday, March 28th and includes TV advertising, print advertising, media coverage in Metro newspaper, social media ads, and two new websites. The websites include:

  1. www.moreparamedics.com: Here visitors are educated on the important role paramedics play here in BC and why paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers need public support and more resources. This website will also be a valuable resource where our ads will live online and visitors can access the list of MLAs to contact, requesting support for paramedics.
  2.  www.paramedicsin859.com: Here, paramedics, dispatchers and visitors will be able to report their ambulance response times. Reported response times will give the public, politicians, patients, and of course, Paramedics and Dispatchers, a visual of average response times. We have been notified by many Paramedics and Dispatchers of the long response times to get to a patient’s side during a medical emergency. This is your opportunity to be involved in the campaign by reporting your response times, no matter where you work in the province. We encourage you to visit our website and report any responses to a patient’s side that are greater than 8 minutes and 59 seconds. Simply visit the site and follow the prompts. 

Please note, that we have taken measures in the construction and implementation of this website to ensure that the reporting of delayed response times, will not reveal a patient’s location, in order to maintain privacy and patient confidentiality. When you click a location on the map, the exact location is converted to a general spot within the electoral boundary, and thus the actual point you clicked is not saved or revealed.

What this means for you

You will likely see our ads running over the next few months on TV and in print. To ensure we are all able to support this initiative to raise awareness and public support of our cause, we have attached a message box here that outlines our key messaging for this campaign.

This campaign is an opportunity to emphasize to the public that while we as a collective are the most highly trained, frontline medical professionals, we do not have enough ambulances and resources to provide emergency care to B.C. residents who need it. We encourage you to share, re-post and retweet our social media posts covering the campaign.

You will be seeing more communications with ways you can help support and spread awareness surrounding the campaign over the next few weeks.

Sincerely,

Provincial Executive Committee
Ambulance Paramedics and Emergency Dispatchers of BC
CUPE Local 873

Click here to download a PDF version of this message 

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