By EMS1 Staff
STOCKTON, Calif. — Fire chiefs and city officials voiced their frustration at a board meeting this week regarding the county’s EMS agency.
Several chiefs took issue with the county limiting fire departments from responding to medical calls. Currently, fire department paramedics and EMTs are unable to act as primary responders to medical calls, reported the Record Net.
“EMS policy limits fire department participation in the emergency medical system,” Randy Bradley, chief of both the Tracy Fire Department and South County Fire Authority, said. “We know some of these calls end up being critical calls.”
Chief Bradley noted that even though at least one paramedic is on every engine that responds to calls, they are still limited by county EMS policies.
“In years past, the fire department has always been dispatched to all emergency medical calls,” Lathrop Manteca Fire District Chief Gene Neely said. “I’m concerned. Nowhere else is this being done. It has been gradually getting worse and worse.”
During an incident last year, an ambulance was dispatched to a call regarding a woman who was short of breath, but the ambulance experienced a significant delay. Instead, the Tracy Fire Department responded to the call; the woman later died.
“If the Easter morning incident occurred today, the outcome would be the same because there has been no change in policy,” Chief Bradley wrote in a Sept. 28 report. “From a public safety perspective, staff believes it is imperative that the San Joaquin EMS Agency change its policy to allow the Tracy Fire Department paramedics to respond to all EMS emergencies.”
The board’s chairman, Moses Zapien, acknowledged the chiefs’ concerns, stating, “Ultimately, I believe we are all committed to ensuring a pre-hospital patient care system that can best serve the needs of the people of San Joaquin County.”