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Should Volunteer Squads Be Eliminated ?


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If there is this volunteer shortage in your area,then you must have times that you do not have an ambulance in service to respond? That tells me your service is putting the public's lives at risk,just for you to be a volunteer.

We have enough volunteers to cover and our trucks havent missed a shift yet i was saying it would be nice to have more though. Although judging by some of you remarks we should all quit and say to hell with the public, then yeah lives would be at risk, but that why we are there to save lives not put them at risk!!

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It really is as simple as if you are willing to stick with the status quo, you are part of the problem.

=D>

Damn, I hate it when I agree with firemen.

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Where to start...

nsmedic393 - if you had read the signature line it is 520 so far this year, it will be 1800 by the end of the year. That is how we pushed the village board into getting the two paid Paras we have. That was a big push from the VOLUNTEERS to get the two PAID PARAS and we have to fight for the budget every year. The southern NY - PA border has been a depressed area for decades and we are just now gaining some jobs back. One of the larger cities here went from a population of 80,000 thirty years ago to 50,000 today. So, no, if we don't do it the village will not be hiring paid replacements, the call will just go unanswered.

hfdff422 - There is nothing status quo about our squad. We were one of the first in upstate NY to go to 12 lead ecg. We were one of the Pilot Program squads with CPAP. We had narcs before many of the paid departments around us. One of the drivers in this is our distance from any hospital. When you have to care for your patient for an hour instead of ten minutes you need the best equipment and skills you can get, that is where our money goes. When we see a need in our patient community we work hard to fill it. Our limitation is money, not the status quo. In reality we can move faster than many paid departments since we don't have their bureaucracy to fight.

weasel 108 - I read the first part of your comment, it was the last part that I quoted, and that was objectionable. We don't do this just to volunteer, we do it because there is a need and we are the only ones filling that need. There is no tooth fairy that is going to leave a paid EMS squad under our pillow, just the cold reality of life.

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So what have we learned from 14 pages of comments....

City managers and administration do not know how to fund, operate, emergency services... (something we all CAN agree upon)

Volunteers "feel" they have a need to act upon

Paid professionals, believe that communities need to place more emphasis on how they can provide, not that with what they can get by with.

Volunteers sometimes feel threatened by professionals attitude

Volunteers feel they are providing a valuable service

Professionals feel they are providing a valuable service

Professionals feel most communities, can afford EMS, when channeled and believe if volunteers truly want to help, they help establish a professional EMS service in their communities.

Volunteers, feel if they don't act .. know one will.

Professionals feel if they would quit "performing"; communities would fill they need with professional services.

Volunteers will not acknowledge that "their interest"groups have actually hindered and digressed EMS systems nationwide.

Professionals have not taken appropriate action to mandate more professional standards are placed into affect, thus causing true change.

BOTH, acknowledge there will always be a need in some remote areas, for the need of volunteer services.

BOTH, acknowledge.. that the level of care is not dependent of paid or volunteer...

BOTH acknowledge, we in the health care is NOT prepared for the future..

BOTH acknowledge.. this debate will continue forever...and the topic has been over spoken...

R/r 911

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