By EMS1 Staff
PEND ORIELLE COUNTY, Wash. — A private EMS agency about to begin service claimed the local volunteer firefighters are trying to prevent them from working.
KXLY reported that Pend Orielle Paramedics will be the only first responders in the county licensed to transport patients who need advanced life support, and volunteer firefighters said the resource should not be wasted on calls that volunteer crews can handle themselves.
However, the EMS agency said without the lower-level calls, they cannot afford to stay in operation.
“We have met more opposition I believe than any other ambulance service ever has,” Pend Orielle Paramedics co-owner John Jackson said. “Basically it takes away well over half the majority of calls. I can’t hire 21 employees as we’ve done, and start out a business with half the call volume, or even 75 percent of the call volume gone.”
The decision of what calls the EMS agency can respond to will ultimately be made by the department of health.