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Wis. ambulance co. facing volunteer shortage

A struggling economy has resulted in time pressures for people, who might opt to concentrate on holding onto their paying jobs and be less willing to take on any volunteer work

Wiscnews.com

PARDEEVILLE, Wis. — Ask Linda Henning how many more volunteers she needs to staff the Pardeeville District Ambulance Service, and she’ll say, “As many as we can get.”

Henning has been, for about a year, the director of the Pardeeville emergency medical response program, whose 120-square-mile service area includes the villages of Pardeeville and Wyocena and parts of the towns of Springvale, Marcellon, Scott and Wyocena. The Pardeeville ambulance service is far from alone in the challenge that it faces — not enough trained volunteers to keep it fully staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But some Pardeeville area residents have started to notice that there have been more and more times when an ambulance from Divine Savior Healthcare in Portage has had to handle calls in the Pardeeville area because of the volunteer shortage. Henning said she notices it, too, but she said the situation hasn’t resulted in Pardeeville-area patients not getting prompt emergency response and treatment.

Full story: Pardeeville ambulance service faces volunteer shortage