FDNY Wants To Reduce Ambulance Staffing
The debate is whether the plan will save lives, or risk them.
Of the city's current 550 daily ambulance shifts, just 147 are staffed with paramedics.
The FDNY says it wants to improve its lagging response times to life-or-death medical emergencies by splitting up paramedic pairs and placing them with a lesser-trained partner in 100 more ambulance shifts a day.
Under the current system, two paramedics must staff each advanced life-support ambulance, which handles serious cases such as cardiac arrest.
Two lesser-trained emergency medical technicians staff each of the city's basic life-support units, which provide first aid and transport.
The FDNY is now calling for a rule change to allow ALS ambulances to be staffed with one paramedic and one EMT.
This would get ambulances with at least one paramedic to patients faster. The downside, critics say, is that the quality of care could suffer.
Only paramedics can install breathing tubes, start an intravenous line and administer medications.
"I think for people who require a paramedic immediately, it would make a big difference in improving their chance of survival," said John Peruggia, the FDNY's chief of emergency medical service.
"The first arriving unit would have the ability to begin advanced life support, where today that's not always the case," he said, adding that a second paramedic ambulance would be dispatched to help in heart cases.
The plan will be introduced Tuesday to the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council, which sets rules on ambulance staffing and protocol.
"We don't like it," said Robert Unger, spokesman for city unions representing EMTs and paramedics.
"When paramedics arrive at a cardiac arrest, you need two people with the skills and authority to treat you. When your heart stops, you don't want a situation where one person does the whole job."
The FDNY says paramedics should arrive at life-threatening calls in less than 10 minutes in 90 percent of cases.
