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BC Emergency Health Services Foundation Launches Campaign for Life-Saving Cardiac Monitors

November 4 2026 - The BC Emergency Health Services Foundation is appealing to British Columbians for donations to equip more ambulances with advanced 12-lead cardiac monitors and defibrillators.

The campaign, highlighted in a recent direct-mail package sent to households across the province, focuses on reducing treatment times for severe heart attacks.

The monitors allow paramedics to perform full electrocardiograms on scene, detect ST-elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMIs), and transmit the data in real time to hospitals. This enables catheterization teams to prepare before the patient arrives and, in some cases, lets ambulances bypass closer emergency rooms that cannot treat the blockage.

Each unit costs approximately $55,000. The foundation aims to deploy roughly 900 of the devices over five years, expanding the technology beyond the limited number of urban and rural ambulances that currently carry it.

“Time is muscle” in cardiac emergencies.

Donations can be made online at bcehsf.ca.

BCEHS, one of the largest ambulance services in North America, responds to hundreds of thousands of calls annually across the province.

The foundation says the new monitors will improve outcomes for patients.

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