Alabama Rescue Service Seeks Money to Pay Volunteers

Rescue Chief Mark Bray says he is afraid a day will come when the volunteer paramedics from Southeast Shelby County Rescue and Emergency Medical Services will not be able to respond to a car accident or other emergency in time to save a life.

The department is studying the possibility of adding hospital transportation service. The hope is that money earned taking patients to hospitals would help the department maintain its quality of rescue service by providing salaries to keep paramedics.

In 2005, the service responded to 1,792 emergency calls in Columbiana, Wilsonville and other parts of unincorporated Shelby County, Bray said.

The department, known as Rescue 88, currently relies on Regional Paramedical Service to provide hospital transport for parts of southeastern Shelby County. If Rescue 88 established a transport service, it would be able to collect revenue by charging insurance companies for taking a patient to a hospital, Bray said. Those without insurance would be billed for the transport.

The funds, he said, would provide salaries for some of the department's 30 volunteers. That move is needed to keep paramedics, he said.

His department, like others across the state, is having a hard time getting young people to spend the two years and nearly $3,000 required to become emergency medical technicians, only to find themselves spending sleepless nights responding to calls for public assistance as unpaid volunteers while also trying to hold down paying jobs, and often raise families.

''The sky's not falling,'' Bray recently told members of Columbiana's public safety committee, ''but we're not going to be able to keep doing this at this rate for much longer.''

Rescue 88 each year receives about $45,000 from the City of Columbiana and $8,000 from Wilsonville, and each February sends letters to about 5,000 households requesting financial support. Only about 22 percent of those 5,000 contribute anything, Bray said.

The department applies for grants, he said, although there are fewer available for paramedic services than police or fire departments.

Currently, the department has 30 volunteers, although at any given time, only about half of those will ''be really active,'' Bray said. Work demands, marriage and births often sideline volunteers, he said.

As a result, he said he can never let his pager leave his side in case the volunteers staffing the station - sometimes as few two - need help answering a call.

''It just ain't fun anymore,'' Bray, a paramedic since 1982, told city officials.

Bray said he could not provide an estimate for the cost of starting the service, but said it would take several months to recoup that initial investment.

Money earned through the transport service would go toward operating it and providing salaries to some volunteers.

Bray said the idea, still in the early stages of consideration, has obstacles, including the possibility that Rescue 88 would temporarily need more money from Columbiana and Wilsonville while the department tries to build a reserve fund.

The only other option, Bray said, is for Rescue 88 to ask for an increase in the annual contribution from Columbiana and Wilsonville.

''We just want to provide the best service we can, but something's got to give,'' Bray said.

EMAIL: jgray@bhamnews.com

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