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New data is raising concerns about ambulance staffing levels in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., months after hours were cut at the local emergency department.
The northeast B.C. community has been without evening and weekend emergency department services since September due a doctor shortage.
Mayor Darryl Krakowka says residents were told a second ambulance would be stationed to fill the gap, and take patients more than 100 kilometres away to the nearest hospital in Dawson Creek as needed.
But data provided by B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) shows the two ambulances aren’t always staffed.
From September to December 2025, BCEHS says shifts for one ambulance were filled an average of 92 per cent of the time, while shifts for the second were filled 83 per cent of the time.
“That means there’s days that we don’t have an ambulance or we don’t have a second ambulance,” said Krakowka, a retired paramedic who worked for nearly 10 years in the community.
“If I was the Minister of Health, my eyes would be wide open,” he said. “And if I was the CEO of Northern Health, my eyes would be wide open right now, too.”
BCEHS says it hired 10 full-time paramedics to staff the second ambulance after the emergency department hours were reduced.
Crews responded to 194 emergency calls and patient transfer requests in Tumbler Ridge between Sept. 1, 2025, and Jan. 7, 2026. Most of them – 158 – were handled locally, while 36 were handled by crews from other communities.
“We are very proud of the BCEHS employees who have stepped up to increase ambulance coverage in Tumbler Ridge when the community needed it,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Ambulances based in Tumbler Ridge also responded to 34 emergencies or patient transfers elsewhere in the region, according to BCEHS.
“When an emergency occurs, the closest available ambulance responds,” the spokesperson said.
But Krakowka says that only adds to residents fear that an ambulance might not be there when they need it.
“This was the fix that was advertised by Northern Health,” he said.
“You’re putting more lives at risk because not only do we not have an ER after hours or on weekends, we do not fully have two ambulances here because they’re not fully manned.”
Northern Health says it continues to recruit doctors and nurses as it works to restore emergency department hours.
In a Dec. 9 update, the health authority says a new doctor is expected to arrive in Tumbler Ridge in spring 2027.
It says it has also posted for a nurse practitioner to work in the emergency department, a role it says would be a first for the community. Two family doctor positions remain posted.
The health authority said it’s focused on “expanding primary care” and exploring walk-in emergency services 10 hours a day, seven days a week “as physician recruitment stabilizes.”
Krakowka wants the health authority to consider other options in the meantime, including virtual care or bringing in doctors from neighbouring communities for short-term coverage.
He also wants a commitment that the second ambulance will stay stationed in Tumbler Ridge when emergency hours are restored.
“We had two ambulances here before,” he said.
“These paramedics have moved to our community. They’re our family now.”
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