The report said paid firefighters lacked paramedic credentials and that volunteer firefighters arrive at an emergency as quickly as paid firefighters do
LONG BEACH, N.Y. — A Long Beach emergency services report concluded the city needs a 24-hour emergency room and additional ambulances and paramedics to serve the community that has been without a hospital since superstorm Sandy closed the Long Beach Medical Center.
The $55,000 study commissioned by the City of Long Beach also recommended reducing the number of paid, full-time firefighter positions to save $2 million.
Analysts from the Washington, D.C.-based ICMA Center for Public Safety Management said the city should add a second ambulance to answer peak calls during 12-hour shifts, in addition to an existing ambulance responding round-the-clock.
Ambulance service since Sandy has been diverted to hospitals in Oceanside and East Meadow.
South Nassau Communities Hospital opened an urgent care facility next to the shuttered hospital on East Bay Boulevard, but it cannot take ambulances or trauma patients.
The report was commissioned last year, before Long Beach officials announced plans to lay off five paid firefighters funded by a two-year $900,000 federal grant that expired at the end of the year. The positions have been extended to Feb. 15.
The report concluded that paid city firefighters lacked paramedic credentials and that the volunteer force of about 150 firefighters usually arrived at an emergency as quickly as paid firefighters did.
The report's review of fire department emergency calls showed that 75 percent of the calls were for emergency services and 23 percent were reports of fires. About 47 percent of the calls for fires were deemed false alarms.
The Long Beach Fire Department "has organizational issues and inefficiencies that require improvement," the report states.
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You will fine this true of Salisbury in many ways, too, especially the needing more paramedics, not EMT, paramedics.
ReplyDeleteThe bait and switch started years ago under Gordy, See and Hoppes.
I have been saying this all along about the Salisbury Fire Department. Thank you for finding this article and posting it.
ReplyDeleteApparently this study was done by a major consulting firm and this study is not unique to only the Long Beach Fire Department. The Salisbury Fire Department is exactly like this study, but they have more false fire alarms.
Hire more paramedics and cut the firefighters because the volunteers can handle the fire calls. Recruit more volunteers instead of running them off.
Watch out now you will have paid firemen getting on here saying they ride the ambulance also. The need is for paramedics not firefighter EMT's. Firefighter EMT's are no where close to being a paramedic.
Every engine with a paid crew has a paramedic on board or intermediate.
DeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYou will fine this true of Salisbury in many ways, too, especially the needing more paramedics, not EMT, paramedics.
The bait and switch started years ago under Gordy, See and Hoppes.
January 21, 2015 at 1:12 PM
You are exactly correct. One of the Bait and Switch individuals goes by the initials ZB. He was hired in a paramedics slot and he was given 2 years to become a paramedic. He was taking classes at Wor Wic and failed out of the paramedic program at the tax payers expense. The tax payers paid for him to become a paramedic and let him off work and paid him overtime while in class off duty. They ultimately rewarded him with a job and now he is an acting lieutenant. He was a Delmar boy with David See and he is currently being treated special by an assistant chief who is also from Delmar. Anyone hired under those pretenses should have been relieved of their position and forced to pay the city back in time off and tuition. Proof positive that the Salisbury Fire Department is ran by corrupt people.
The Long Beach Fire Department "has organizational issues and inefficiencies that require improvement," the report states.
ReplyDeleteSo does the Salisbury Fire Department.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteEvery engine with a paid crew has a paramedic on board or intermediate.
January 21, 2015 at 3:37 PM
What's your point? The article and the experts are saying put the paramedics on the ambulances and cut the firefighters. The volunteers respond just as quick as the paid fire crews. Quit trying to justify paid firemen jobs.
Parts of the report oare similar to the Salisbury Fire Department. the glaring part that is not is the fact that the volunteers that the Salisbury Fire Department have OFTEN scratch on calls they are alerted for. Many instances at night and on the weekends finds the "Paid" fire crew downtown having to respond on these calls because of this. All one has to do is listen to the scanner to understand what I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteSomething not often talked about, especially on SbyNews is the fact that residents that pay city taxes that live North of Elizabeth St and East of of Roger St are not getting the same coverage as those city residents that live West and South of theses streets.
This is exactly what the fire department in Salisbury needs to happen. Get rid of Hoppes as well.
ReplyDelete