The community paramedic program, designed to provide preventive healthcare to British Columbia’s remote and Indigenous regions, is experiencing significant operational challenges.
Data from BC Emergency Health Services reveals that 53 of 101 full-time positions remain unfilled, leaving many of the 65 designated communities without consistent coverage.
By focusing on chronic disease management and home-based clinical monitoring, these paramedics mitigate the burden on rural hospitals and reduce the frequency of medical evacuations.
Local government officials from the Village of Valemount and the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality have formally advocated for stabilized staffing to ensure the program’s long-term sustainability.
The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality similarly benefited from the community paramedic program. On top of home visits, the paramedic set up a “track social” that encouraged seniors to come out and walk around an indoor track together twice a week.
At its height the track social brought together 75 seniors who were encouraged to exercise, have their blood pressure checked and combat loneliness all in one go, aid Lorraine Gerwing, deputy mayor for the municipality.
Located in the northeastern corner of the province, the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality covers 10 per cent of B.C.’s geographic area and sits at the foothills of the stunning Rocky Mountains.
“It’s like Banff but without the crowds,” Gerwing said.
Fort Nelson has five doctors and a 22-bed hospital, with 15 acute care beds and seven long-term care beds, Gerwing said.
Despite that, patients often are sent out of town for care. Local doctors make about 400 CT referrals annually and the closest CT scanner is in Fort St. John, about a four-hour drive away on a road that is frequently without cell service, she said.
Gerwing said that in 2025 there were six service interruptions at the local hospital, closing the emergency department for more than 63 hours. There were 153 medical evacuations in 2025, Gerwing added, where patients were transported by air ambulance to higher-acuity care centres in other parts of the province.
When a patient is transported by medevac one way, they have to find their own way home, she added.
Which is why preventive medicine offered by the community paramedics is so important, she said. People might not seek out a doctor because their health is fine, which means they can miss important precursors to illness or disease.
She said her own high blood pressure was flagged by the community paramedic at a track social event. That moment could have saved her from a stroke 10 years down the line, she said.
In an emailed statement sent to The Tyee, BC Emergency Health Services said it is committed to developing a long-term and sustainable approach to the community paramedic program and that it is working with the Ministry of Health to increase frontline staffing, recruit workers from rural and Indigenous communities to work close to home, and do outreach in high schools.
-with files from Michelle Gamage/The Tyee
-lead supplied by Lorraine Gerwing/D-Mayor Fort Nelson
-presentation by News97.ca
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