By Robert Marchant
LoHud.com
CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — When the call for help came into the Croton ambulance squad time and again during much of this year, no one was there to respond.
As volunteer ambulance members were paged and did not respond within nine minutes, due to shortages in staffing that have taken their toll on scores of suburban communities around the region, the call was picked up by a neighboring community, in most cases the Ossining volunteer ambulance squad.
The nine-minute delay in answering calls to transport patients, a gap in service that caused community concern, has brought about a new strategy that many other volunteer agencies are beginning to explore.