Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Middleport Fire Company will cease providing Advanced Life Support service at the end of this month, the company announced Monday.
It’s because the volunteer company does not have enough Emergency Medical Technicians and paramedics on its roster to comply with New York State Department of Health regulations when answering rescue calls, according to Middleport EMS Captain Eric Dodge.
The state says an ALS rescue squad cannot respond to any emergency medical incident without at least a certified EMT. The Middleport company, whose service area includes the village and large sections of the towns of Hartland and Royalton, has two paramedics and a “handful” of EMTs on its roster. Daytime rescue calls are the hardest for the company to field because the EMTs are usually all working, Dodge said.
“We just don’t have enough EMTs anymore,” he said.
The company will cease providing ALS response and surrender its ALS certificate at 11:59 p.m. April 30.
Dodge said the company is applying to the state health department now for a certificate to be a Basic Life Support-FR agency, whose volunteers can administer some basic medications, to people suffering an allergic reaction or having trouble breathing for example.
Middleport firefighters will still be the first responders in the company’s service area. Before the company receives BLS certification, volunteers will be able to do very basic tasks such as apply bandages and administer oxygen. They also will still operate Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) under a Public Access Defibrillator program.
Basically, the change in certificates means first responders in the Middleport area will have to call up ALS service as it’s needed. When volunteers arrive at a scene and determine advanced medical help is required, they’ll summon it from Rural Metro or Medina Fire Company, Dodge said.
Middleport Fire Company does not have its own ambulance. Tri-Town Ambulance, which responds with Middleport firefighters, can provide some advanced care but it is not ALS-certified, Dodge said.
The Middleport company’s decision to cease being an ALS provider came only after “much discussion and soul-searching,” Dodge said. Emergency medical calls comprise about 70 percent of the fire company’s workload and as an ALS agency the company scrambles to get an EMT on board before going to those calls.
“By stepping down our level of service, we’ll be able to respond faster, just not at a higher level of service,” Dodge said.
Middleport Fire Company formed the first volunteer ALS rescue service in Niagara County, in 1991.
Its numbers of certified EMTs and paramedics has fallen over time with the state’s raised education and training requirements, according to Dodge. These specialty first responders must be re-certified every three years, meaning they’re taking classes and undergoing training fairly continuously. It’s an awful lot to ask of volunteers, Dodge suggested. In the professional (paid) paramedic field, there is high turnover due to the rigors of the job; 7 years is the average span of a paid paramedic’s career, he said.
Dodge, who first obtained his EMT certification in 1986, said the rescue field has changed dramatically since then, for the better for people in emergency circumstances but at an increasingly high cost to rescuers.
“Education is great, but there really has been a disconnect between the Department of Health and providers in the field” in terms of requirements, he said. “If recertification was every five years, even, instead of three, that would help.”
©2015 the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.)