“We are not paying enough for the services they’re providing, or the private sector hasn’t been consistent enough in doing that. “It’s a pay issue,” says deputy county executive Christopher Kelly. Study or no, an acute shortage of staff remains to be reckoned with. “We have EMS going on the other side of the reservoir to help support calls, which is a scary thing when you think about it, especially if you’re that family on the other side of the reservoir waiting for an EMS squad from Woodstock to get there.” “I represent Woodstock and West Hurley,” said Heppner. Speaking at the committee meeting, legislator Jonathan Heppner emphasized the dire situation of a person in distress when waiting for help. And that’s one of the big things that keeps me up at night with this job, not being able to provide assistance to our residents.” Wait times for up to an hour to get an ambulance at someone’s home. “At times,” says Erichsen, “we’ve got like five, six, seven, eight dispatches for an ambulance, where we’re pulling ambulances out of Sullivan County to respond. While someone will always pick up the call at a county public safety answering point, there still remains the problem of having enough personnel and ambulances to respond. “If you look at the weekly, monthly, quarterly numbers, we’re averaging nine to eleven percent of calls going unanswered, which, which is a very, very, very scary thing for us.” “And that isn’t like a fluke in numbers,” explains Everett Erichsen, Ulster County’s Director of Emergency Services. A frightening statistic for those in desperate need of emergency services has come to light in Ulster County.ĮMS agencies throughout the county are unable to put together a crew and respond to one out of ten 911 calls, on average.
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