Mutual aid only going one way? Norwich ambulance will soon restrict service calls
(Photo by Zachary Meseck)
NORWICH – Officials from the City of Norwich have announced that starting on April 1 the Norwich Fire Department will halt providing ambulance coverage beyond its certified areas of need, which could leave remote sections of the county waiting for an ambulance.
Norwich officials say the city can no longer meet the demands or costs of providing coverage to remote areas of the county.
They said the local ambulance systems are reaching a tipping point and the City of Norwich can no longer be relied upon to offer blanket support to area's outside its contracted zones.
There has been a long standing agreement between emergency medical services (EMS) in the county to respond to each others emergency calls. As costs and resources supporting these services has diminished over the years there has been an increasing burden placed on the handful of ambulances remaining active in these rural areas. Often crews, such as Norwich, travel outside their immediate coverage area, where taxpayers are supporting them, to help other neighborhoods and towns in need.
While the City of Norwich ambulance service will continue to provide ambulance aid to the Town of Norwich, Town of North Norwich, Town of Plymouth, and Town of Preston, it will likely halt all other responses. The move again highlights a major concern for county officials to provide coverage.
Chenango County Fire Bureau Coordinator Matthew Beckwith discussed how Norwich leaving the EMS mutual aid agreement will impact response time, call wait times, and more in other parts of the county.
“It’s unfortunate that the mayor and the common council felt pressured to do this, we look at Norwich as a huge community player, and I respect the fact that they want to take care of their constituents,” said Beckwith. “My number concern is everyone in this county, not just one particular district.”
“Everyone is concerned, they’re going to feel the pain from Norwich pulling out, and the entire system is worse off.”
According to City of Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino, the decision to stop responding to mutual aid calls has been in the works for more than two years, and it wasn’t a choice officials have made lightly.
“I’ve lost sleep over this issue,” said Papelino. “I understand the ramifications of this, I know what it means for people who need help, and it’s not something I’ve taken lightly.”
“The City of Norwich taxpayers have been paying to provide service to other parts of the county, and eventually you have to say enough is enough.”
Papelino said the fire department’s certificate of need area covers the City of Norwich, Town of Norwich, Town of North Norwich, Town of Plymouth, and Town of Preston. He said other municipalities that would normally receive the service, including Oxford, McDonough, and Pharsalia will have to wait for another service to arrive.
Beckwith said Chenango County was working with the NFD and doing what it can to help support the department in its efforts. He said with Norwich pulling out of the agreement, people living in other areas of the county may need to wait an hour for an ambulance.
“It works in reverse as well, there’s a lot of hard feelings right now between the agencies, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen if there’s a call for help in Norwich,” he added. “We have to work with the dispatchers more as well, they’re going to have to stay on the phone potentially for half an hour or more with someone who has a medical emergency occurring.”
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Norwich to ask some of these places for contracts, but there hasn’t been a lot of conversation with these outlining areas before recently. “
Beckwith said by pulling out in such a short time span, some of the other agencies who have become dependent on mutual aid, will be left scrambling for ambulances when an emergency arises.
“We want to make sure people realize that we’re going to do everything that we can to get an ambulance to you, but it’s going to be longer than what they expected or they’re used to,” he said. “If there's a medical emergency out of Pharsalia or McDonough they may get an ambulance out of Sherburne or Greene.”
He added that currently the Chenango County Board of Supervisors have identified this issue as something that needs to be addressed, and a plan is currently in development.
Papelino said attempts were made to reach out to supervisors, but at the time of the interview nothing had been finalized with other municipalities.
“I’m going to use the term I’ve heard supervisors using, instead of 'kicking the can down the road,' actually taking a proactive approach when it was brought up more than two years ago would have been more productive,” said Papelino. “I think there needs to be a sit down with areas that want coverage, and the question needs to be asked, what are they going to do for their taxpayers?”
Papelino said several years ago municipalities around Chenango County decided to give up their EMS services, which left their residents unprotected. Papelino added from that point on it was common for paid services throughout the county to take care of them.
He said by ending mutual aid coverage in these areas, the Norwich Fire Department will save money on equipment, manpower, and it will be able to respond more efficiently to emergencies in the municipalities it has agreed to serve.
“From January 1 until the middle of last week, we have been to McDonough, Pharsalia, Otselic, Sherburne, New Berlin, Oxford, and I think the number I had was 182 calls, and that shouldn’t happen,” he added. “Mutual aid is supposed to be mutual, and with a lot of these places it isn’t.”
City of Norwich Mayor Shawn Sastri also spoke about the move and said over the past several years the Norwich Fire Department has seen an increase in EMS calls that is taking a toll on its firefighters.
“The fatigue our staff is experiencing and the wear and tear on our equipment is becoming more apparent,” said Sastri. “A few of our ambulances are experiencing mechanical issues which affects our response to the municipalities that help pay for our services.”
“We’re willing to sit down at the table and explore all options with these other municipalities, and if the county wants the Norwich Fire Department to be the backbone of EMS in the area that’s fine, but they’re going to have to find a way to help pay for it.”
Sastri said to help mitigate those issues the City of Norwich is implementing a 90 day pause in EMS service outside of its certificate of need (CON) area.
“First, effective March 1, 2021, we will no longer provide EMS service outside of our CON if we have one ambulance out on an EMS call regardless of its location,” he said. “The second ambulance will be reserved for service calls in our CON area.”
“Second, effective April 1, 2021, we will no longer provide EMS service outside of our CON district for 90 days.”
He added that if the incident is declared a mass casualty incident Norwich will respond, and after 60 days they will re-evaluate their EMS response and determine if there is a need to extend beyond the 90 days.
Norwich officials say the city can no longer meet the demands or costs of providing coverage to remote areas of the county.
They said the local ambulance systems are reaching a tipping point and the City of Norwich can no longer be relied upon to offer blanket support to area's outside its contracted zones.
There has been a long standing agreement between emergency medical services (EMS) in the county to respond to each others emergency calls. As costs and resources supporting these services has diminished over the years there has been an increasing burden placed on the handful of ambulances remaining active in these rural areas. Often crews, such as Norwich, travel outside their immediate coverage area, where taxpayers are supporting them, to help other neighborhoods and towns in need.
While the City of Norwich ambulance service will continue to provide ambulance aid to the Town of Norwich, Town of North Norwich, Town of Plymouth, and Town of Preston, it will likely halt all other responses. The move again highlights a major concern for county officials to provide coverage.
Chenango County Fire Bureau Coordinator Matthew Beckwith discussed how Norwich leaving the EMS mutual aid agreement will impact response time, call wait times, and more in other parts of the county.
“It’s unfortunate that the mayor and the common council felt pressured to do this, we look at Norwich as a huge community player, and I respect the fact that they want to take care of their constituents,” said Beckwith. “My number concern is everyone in this county, not just one particular district.”
“Everyone is concerned, they’re going to feel the pain from Norwich pulling out, and the entire system is worse off.”
According to City of Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino, the decision to stop responding to mutual aid calls has been in the works for more than two years, and it wasn’t a choice officials have made lightly.
“I’ve lost sleep over this issue,” said Papelino. “I understand the ramifications of this, I know what it means for people who need help, and it’s not something I’ve taken lightly.”
“The City of Norwich taxpayers have been paying to provide service to other parts of the county, and eventually you have to say enough is enough.”
Papelino said the fire department’s certificate of need area covers the City of Norwich, Town of Norwich, Town of North Norwich, Town of Plymouth, and Town of Preston. He said other municipalities that would normally receive the service, including Oxford, McDonough, and Pharsalia will have to wait for another service to arrive.
Beckwith said Chenango County was working with the NFD and doing what it can to help support the department in its efforts. He said with Norwich pulling out of the agreement, people living in other areas of the county may need to wait an hour for an ambulance.
“It works in reverse as well, there’s a lot of hard feelings right now between the agencies, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen if there’s a call for help in Norwich,” he added. “We have to work with the dispatchers more as well, they’re going to have to stay on the phone potentially for half an hour or more with someone who has a medical emergency occurring.”
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Norwich to ask some of these places for contracts, but there hasn’t been a lot of conversation with these outlining areas before recently. “
Beckwith said by pulling out in such a short time span, some of the other agencies who have become dependent on mutual aid, will be left scrambling for ambulances when an emergency arises.
“We want to make sure people realize that we’re going to do everything that we can to get an ambulance to you, but it’s going to be longer than what they expected or they’re used to,” he said. “If there's a medical emergency out of Pharsalia or McDonough they may get an ambulance out of Sherburne or Greene.”
He added that currently the Chenango County Board of Supervisors have identified this issue as something that needs to be addressed, and a plan is currently in development.
Papelino said attempts were made to reach out to supervisors, but at the time of the interview nothing had been finalized with other municipalities.
“I’m going to use the term I’ve heard supervisors using, instead of 'kicking the can down the road,' actually taking a proactive approach when it was brought up more than two years ago would have been more productive,” said Papelino. “I think there needs to be a sit down with areas that want coverage, and the question needs to be asked, what are they going to do for their taxpayers?”
Papelino said several years ago municipalities around Chenango County decided to give up their EMS services, which left their residents unprotected. Papelino added from that point on it was common for paid services throughout the county to take care of them.
He said by ending mutual aid coverage in these areas, the Norwich Fire Department will save money on equipment, manpower, and it will be able to respond more efficiently to emergencies in the municipalities it has agreed to serve.
“From January 1 until the middle of last week, we have been to McDonough, Pharsalia, Otselic, Sherburne, New Berlin, Oxford, and I think the number I had was 182 calls, and that shouldn’t happen,” he added. “Mutual aid is supposed to be mutual, and with a lot of these places it isn’t.”
City of Norwich Mayor Shawn Sastri also spoke about the move and said over the past several years the Norwich Fire Department has seen an increase in EMS calls that is taking a toll on its firefighters.
“The fatigue our staff is experiencing and the wear and tear on our equipment is becoming more apparent,” said Sastri. “A few of our ambulances are experiencing mechanical issues which affects our response to the municipalities that help pay for our services.”
“We’re willing to sit down at the table and explore all options with these other municipalities, and if the county wants the Norwich Fire Department to be the backbone of EMS in the area that’s fine, but they’re going to have to find a way to help pay for it.”
Sastri said to help mitigate those issues the City of Norwich is implementing a 90 day pause in EMS service outside of its certificate of need (CON) area.
“First, effective March 1, 2021, we will no longer provide EMS service outside of our CON if we have one ambulance out on an EMS call regardless of its location,” he said. “The second ambulance will be reserved for service calls in our CON area.”
“Second, effective April 1, 2021, we will no longer provide EMS service outside of our CON district for 90 days.”
He added that if the incident is declared a mass casualty incident Norwich will respond, and after 60 days they will re-evaluate their EMS response and determine if there is a need to extend beyond the 90 days.
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