Trouble Within EMS
May 4th 2010Trouble within EMS.
At last night’s Board of Commissioners meeting it became obvious that there is a split between the paid members of Emergency Services and the volunteers who man Unit #3 in Rocky Hock.
Response times are greater for Unit 3 than the other EMS units (one is at Chowan Hospital and the other is at Center Hill Crossroads Fire Dept.) Volunteer responders have to have the same training as the paid EM workers, so they have many evening training events. Also the volunteers respond from their homes rather than sleep at the station, as the paid workers do (paid workers receive between $37,000 and $40,000 annually.) So there is a natural rivalry between the two.
But at the meeting it was apparent there is animosity between the leaders of Unit 3 and the EMS Director. The Board Chairman commented on this and said it could not be allowed to continue. There is supposed to be a meeting this morning between the two leaders, to try to iron out a schedule and solve some of the communication problems.
If I were a county commissioner, I would attend that meeting….not to interfere, but to listen and learn what the real issues and sticking points are between the volunteers and paid staff. EMS can be a “life and death” matter…commissioners should be aware of all the factors affecting such an important function of county government. No commissioner indicated he would attend.
The handwriting is on the wall that EMS would prefer to have ONLY paid workers. It would be a shame to have the volunteer workers disbanded—both from the monetary savings they provide to the county, and from the citizen participation and community involvement that the EMS volunteers provide—something that distinguishes small communities like ours from big impersonal cities.
