Currently if you have an emergency in the middle of the night on Quadra Island, home to 2700 + residences and many more tourists during the summer, you will have to wait for the Coast Guard or in severe causes you may be lucky to get a helicopter ride! When I moved to the Island 29 years ago, the ambulance would coordinate with the Ferry to transport patients to the Emergency Department at Campbell River Hospital. This essential service was provided successfully for 40 years. Now the Ferry will no longer transport the ambulance and its patient to Campbell River Hospital Emergency Department!

As the Coast Guard could be unavailable, as its function is Marine rescue not a patient transport service for BCEHS, and a helicopter can't fly in fog or high winds, there is a potential for life threatening delays as critical patients will have to wait for the early morning ferry to receive urgent medical care. This has resulted in patients succumbing to their illnesses because they did not receive care in a timely manner!

We also need to allow the Ambulance service to communicate with the Captain during regular hours to help coordinate Emergency Evacuation of Critical Patients. Again, in the past this was done with extreme efficiency.

We the undersigned to respectfully request that the Honourable Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation & Infrastructure and BC Ferries work with BC Emergency Health Services to immediately re-instate our emergency access to off hour Ferry Service for our ambulance. This is an essential service. The Ferry is our highway and literally our lifeline to emergency medical care.