1974 – a time when disco ruled the dance floor, bell bottoms were in vogue and B.C.’s first patients were transported in ambulances that resembled station wagons

1974 –  the first year of operations for Canada’s first provincewide ambulance service

A history of the BC Ambulance Service

Over the last four decades, BC Ambulance Service has been a leader in many patient-care breakthroughs:

• Creating the world’s first paramedic-only infant transport team program in 1976, and advancing specialized pre-hospital care for children, infants and expectant mothers.
• Treating acute heart attack patients right from the time 9-1-1 is called through to transmitting clinical information from the scene to select hospitals in real time.
• Contributing to research that has resulted increased cardiac arrest survival rates – which have nearly doubled in B.C. since 2005.
• Improving outcomes for stroke patients through early detection during the 9-1-1 call, and ensuring patients are transported to specialized care at stroke-receiving hospitals.
• Transporting blood products on air ambulances to provide life-saving blood transfusions sooner.
• Establishing dispatch protocols to immediately launch a helicopter to trauma patients using information gathered from bystanders, rather than waiting for paramedics to provide an assessment.
• Utilizing critical care paramedics, who essentially bring a mobile intensive care unit to a patient’s side, which allows physicians and nurses in smaller communities to remain in their local hospitals.
• Becoming the first emergency services agency in B.C. to receive accreditation by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
• Creating one of North America’s first paramedic bicycle squads in 1992