Nearly a month after an explosive public hearing on the creation of a new East Hampton Village Department of Emergency Medical Services to take control of the ambulance association, the corps is experiencing a shortage of volunteers to cover overnight shifts and its chief is asking the village to hire a paid emergency medical technician to fill the gaps.
“We get that first call covered well, but a lot of times we have that second call, and that’s a difficult spot,” the chief, Mary Mott, said in a phone call this week. “Hiring per diem people to fill in a night shift will help tremendously with those second calls, especially on summer weekends and big event days, until we slowly augment our membership.”
Twelve members have left the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association since the village announced its plan to shift oversight of the service away from the association to the new E.M.S. Department, which Ms. Mott would head.
In an email to the ambulance association that was provided to The Star, Ms. Mott wrote that “night squads are thin, having in many cases only one E.M.T. or in some cases only a driver.” Paid providers would be sought for the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shifts starting May 1. “After evaluation of the situation and realizing that the current solution cannot be sustainable going forward, I believed it became necessary to enhance the night coverage with additional E.M.T.s,” she wrote.
Mayor Jerry Larsen said the village will experiment first with per diem E.M.T.s, not full-time E.M.T.s. “We’re going to be able to add them to night squads when we’re short,” he said. “They asked for help and we’re giving them help.”
“We’re not taking away anyone’s opportunity to volunteer. If any of them want to get out of bed, come down, and tell the paid E.M.T. they want to drive the ambulance, they can do that,” said Mayor Larsen. “Imagine where we would be if we didn’t start the paid paramedic program in 2014? We have three full-time paramedics now. The volunteer version of a paid paramedic is pretty nonexistent now. We have to project forward.”
When an ambulance is unable to muster a crew, it often relies on mutual aid from neighboring departments. Now, when Springs provides mutual aid, some of those responding could be former members of the East Hampton Ambulance Association; at least five are now volunteering in Springs.
“I would say this is a mess of the mayor’s making,” said Lisa Chard, a former village ambulance chief who now volunteers in Springs. “Those of us who do what we do because we love our community will continue to do what we do whether it’s a call in our own district like Springs, or if we get mutual-aided to help the village out,” said Ms. Chard.
Another change in the village: More village employees are getting behind the wheel of an ambulance during tight times.
To that end, Mayor Larsen said he had upward of 10 new drivers, a combination of village employees and fire department members, who would be augmenting the ambulance corps should a resolution on the new E.M.S. Department be approved at the next village board meeting on Friday, April 21. The village will no longer require ambulance drivers to also be E.M.T.s.
“That’s not a new idea,” said Ms. Mott. “We’re always thinking of ways to improve our response. In 2006, I was chief, and we batted that idea around. A lot of times you get a crew together, but you need a driver. It’s like running a business, you have to adapt. We’re taking some ideas from the past and revisiting them. This is just part of an evolution right now. We have to look at the reality we’re in and figure out how to change it. I can understand why the community feels anxiety right now, but I do believe in the future things are going to get better,” she said.
“This is what I’ve been trying to get across for years. You shouldn’t have to be an E.M.T. to drive an ambulance. Now that we’re creating a department under the village, we can make changes like this without having to get membership approval. It’s going to be a big help,” said Mayor Larsen.
Since the March 17 hearing on the creation of the Emergency Medical Services Department, the proposal has been amended slightly. One concession the village made to those angered by the move was a provision to allow ambulance volunteers to continue to elect their officers, subject to village approval. Comments on the amended proposal will be taken at a public hearing on Friday, April 21, at 11 a.m.
