By Dan Marshall

BC Ferries well equipped to handle medical emergencies

Jul 18, 2016 | 9:22 AM

BC Ferries has just announced the company has dealt with 196 medical incidents in it’s current fiscal year.

Spokesperson Deborah Marshall says that figure is about normal for that time period, and the company is well equipped to handle those situations.

“Over 800 of our staff members are qualified occupational first aid attendants.  They do render assistance to any customer in need.  In addition what we do if there is quite a serious medical incident on board one of our ships, we always page for medical personnel.  Often there’ll be a doctor or a nurse and we’re very appreciative of the assistance,” said Marshall.

Marshall says they don’t have exact numbers on how many of those medical issues have occured on the major Nanaimo routes.

“We carry more customers on the major routes, but of course at those terminals we have hospitals and what not very close by.  I know for an example though on the Gabriola run we did have six medical emergencies where we did have to delay a ship or call a ship out in the middle of the night between January and July.”

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Marshall hopes customers will continue to show patience in the event that a medical emergency forces a change to the schedule.