Ambulance Out Of Service
By Doug La Rocque
Berlin Town Supervisor Rob Jaeger read a letter from the Berlin Fire Company at the Thursday, September 12 Town Board Meeting, that stated the department’s ambulance was out of service, effective immediately. It is not a mechanical issue, but a personnel issue. The department’s only remaining Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) is no longer certified come month’s end and does not plan to re-certify. Without an EMT on board, an ambulance cannot respond to a call.
Berlin’s situation is not unique to Eastern Rensselaer County, but to upstate New York as a whole. Several years ago, the Johnsonville ambulance ceased operations, and in Albany County, the Westerlo ambulance will close at the end of the year. The problem is a lack of volunteers who are willing to take the EMT training course. It’s expensive, but most fire departments and ambulance corps are willing to pay for it. It’s the amount of hours that are required, 180 hours to be exact, and that is something many people just don’t have the time to do.
In the meantime, more and more rural towns are counting on help from paid ambulance services located in bigger communities. In Berlin, both the Stephentown and Petersburgh Ambulances are on automatic mutual aid, but both of those corps are hurting for help as well, and often cannot respond themselves. That means the Mohawk Ambulance Service out of Brunswick or Troy, the Bennington or Cambridge rescue squads, or some other paid service is called. The response time is often long. On Monday, September 16, there was an emergency call in Berlin, to which Mohawk was dispatched. Their Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), was heard over the county’s emergency radio communications: 45 minutes.
What To Do?
To use an old cliché, that is the $64,000 question. For several years, local communities have bantered about the idea of combining their services, with the hope at least one ambulance could be staffed, especially in the daytime, to respond to calls. Those talks have never born fruit. Some communities have explored hiring the Mohawk Ambulance Service to station a vehicle in their community, but it proved to be cost prohibitive.
The Eastwick Press spoke to 107th District Assembly Representative Jake Ashby, who says he is unaware of any action on a state level to address the problem. District 5 County Legislator Bruce Patire says short of communities actually banding together, it appears some sort of paid option will have to be the answer.
Along that line, many are hoping that Mohawk’s plans to build a multi-vehicle station in Brunswick might be part of the answer, but according to the company’s President, James P. McPartlon III, that is not necessarily so. The new station, for which ground has not yet been broken, will house the ambulance that is currently stationed in Brunswick, and those that have been housed in a structure on River Street in Troy. He also told the Brunswick Planning Board at that time, these formerly Troy based ambulances, are often staged at strategic locations in Troy, during the daytime hours, when the rural staffing problems are at their worst. So the new station will not necessarily mean any extra ambulances or quicker response times during the day. Perhaps they will help somewhat at night, when the ambulances will stage out of the new station.
So for now, until an answer can be found, Berlin relies on its neighbors, who often have to rely on their neighbors, or a paid service that most times is at least 30 minutes away, at best. How long that will take is a question to which no one seems to have the answer.