ELIZABETHTOWN — Small populations in many Essex County communities, coupled with onerous state training requirements, is resulting in a scarcity of emergency-services volunteers.
County Emergency Medical Services Coordinator Patty Bashaw said that her hometown ambulance squad in Elizabethtown is probably going to have to hire a paid EMT by May.
GROWING PROBLEM
Assembling an ambulance crew to answer an emergency call is becoming increasingly difficult throughout the county, she told the County Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee on Monday.
"We can't be standing still and not doing anything anymore. A call went out the other day, and a person was having a miscarriage. That person ended up going to the hospital in a private vehicle. That can't happen. Someone is going to die."
Bashaw goes on many Elizabethtown ambulance calls herself but also has duties as the director of the County Office for the Aging.
"If I'm off to Albany, I cannot move an ambulance (for a call) during the day," Bashaw said.
"It is an issue. We're really at the point where we need to be looking at solutions. What's going on in the EMS community scares me to death. It's not just during the day; it's evenings as well. Some (ambulance) districts have a paid person covering."
ALL-PAID SQUAD
Supervisor George Canon (R-Newcomb) said that's just what they had to do in Newcomb.
"Everybody on our EMS squad is paid. That's the only way around it. The call would go out, and the siren would blow and blow."
The shortage of volunteers is also affecting fire departments, Essex County Emergency Services Director Donald Jaquish said.
"Recruitment/retention is an important issue," Jaquish said. "This problem is all over the nation. America is working more hours instead of less hours than they were 20 years ago."
He said the minimum requirements for firefighters are 160 hours of training.
People who have jobs and families would like to volunteer but can't, Supervisor Joyce Morency (R-St. Armand) said.
"They can't take the time to do that."
WILMINGTON MAY HIRE
State agencies are constantly increasing the amount of training needed, said Supervisor Randy Preston (I-Wilmington), who is assistant fire chief in Wilmington.
"Somebody sitting behind a desk in Albany has come out with requirements that are driving the volunteers right out. Everybody knows about the turmoil in Albany. They don't know what they're doing."
He said Wilmington may also have to go to a paid EMT for its ambulance.
"We are going to have to hire someone. What they're requiring of people in EMS and the fire service is just incredible."
'FRUSTRATING'
Supervisor Gerald Morrow (D-Chesterfield) said his town is covered by CVPH Medical Center ambulance service.
"We're fortunate in that aspect. CVPH has a paid ambulance. They bill the insurance companies."
Bashaw said "volunteers won't go away;" they'll just be interleaved with paid personnel.
Minerva is another community that might need a paid EMT, Supervisor Sue Montgomery Corey (D-Minerva) said.
"We're going to get to a point where we have to go to paid."
She said the Distance Learning Program that uses closed-circuit television instruction might help if necessary courses were offered. Many schools have a Distance Learning Lab already, she said.
Preston said anyone who wants to know why volunteer ranks are thinning should look at the state requirements.
"It's very, very frustrating."
E-mail Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com
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