The British Columbia Ambulance Service (BCAS) station 107 – Sooke, covers the communities and districts of Sooke, Shirley, Otter Point, Jordan River, East Sooke, and Metchosin and routinely covers the West Shore and provides secondary service to Port Renfrew. BCAS Sooke has two ambulances staffed 24/7.
In March 2011 we responded to 154 requests for services, 108 of those were within the district of Sooke the remainder in the surrounding areas.
BCAS employs Emergency Medical Call Takers and Emergency Medical Dispatchers in our dispatch perations centres. These dedicated professionals gather critical information from the caller and use internationally-recognized protocols to assess and triage the incoming calls and dispatch paramedics to the scene. Call takers can also provide those at the scene with medical instructions over the telephone prior to the arrival of the ambulance and paramedics.
If you have a medical emergency call 9-1-1 and we will send paramedics to help. Please call 911 for service and do not attend the ambulance station.Ambulances and staff may be away from the station responding to other calls.
When you call 911 for an ambulance there are a number of things you should expect:
The first person you talk to will ask you whether you need police, fire or ambulance and your language if you don’t speak English. If you have a medical emergency you will be immediately transferred to a medical call taker.
Stay on the phone and answer all the questions call taker asks you to the best of your ability. It is important that you remain calm and speak clearly when asked for information. By remaining calm, you are providing vital information that ensures the most appropriate response is dispatched.
The call taker will ask you:
Your location. What phone number are you calling from? What is happening?
They may also ask you questions about the patient like:
How old is the patient? Is the patient conscious? Are they breathing?Are they completely awake? Are they changing colour? Are there any obvious injuries? Are they trapped? Does the patient have a history of heart problems? Have they taken drugs or medication in the past 12 hours?
Once the call taker has received all the necessary information, the call taker may ask you to ensure young children are safely out of the way, gather medications, write down the name of the patient’s doctor, unlock the door, if it is at night, turn on all the outside lights, send an adult to the gate or entryway to guide the responding ambulance staff.
BCAS Paramedics and Dispatch Operation staff are dedicated to providing patient care to the community members of Sooke.
