By Sean Philip Cotter
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY, Mass. — Fallon Ambulance Service laid off 23 staff members – about 3 percent of its total staff – Tuesday, three weeks after Weymouth announced it will not renew its contract with the company.
Everyone laid off was part of the administrative staff, said Peter Racicot, Fallon’s vice president of business development.
He said the layoffs will not affect the level of service the Quincy-based company provides.
“This will have absolutely no impact on patient care or our ability to respond to an emergency,” Racicot said Wednesday.
Last month, Weymouth announced it would drop Fallon as its 911 provider. The contract will end June 30, but Racicot said that isn’t why the layoffs happened.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with Weymouth,” he said.
He said the company is restructuring to stay current with the “ever-changing health-care marketplace,” and such actions are common among health-care providers.
Fallon now has 733 employees, Racicot said. The ambulance company is the 911 provider for Milton, Brookline and Dedham and provides primary backup to Boston and Randolph.
When reached by phone Wednesday evening, Milton town administrator Michael Dennehy said he hadn’t yet heard about the layoffs. He said the Milton administration already had plans to hold a meeting soon to hold a regular meeting with Fallon, which the town has under contract until June 30, 2020.
“We will have them in here in the next week or so to find out what their plans are going forward,” he said.
Dennehy said he isn’t concerned about Fallon’s ability to deliver the services they’re contracted for.
“We’re very happy with the product,” he said.
Fallon used to be the 911 provider for Quincy and Braintree, but lost contracts with both over the past three years.
Weymouth announced Dec. 18 that South Shore Health System, the parent company of South Shore Hospital, will handle the town’s emergency response services starting July 1. That means the town would be parting ways with Fallon after 16 years of contracting the company as its 911 provider.
Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund also said he isn’t worried about the ambulance company’s ability to serve Weymouth through the final six months of the contract. He said there’s never been a problem with the company, and they have continued to be professional after the decision to go with South Shore.
“They’ve been great during the whole transition,” he said.
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