DC First Responders Urge Mayor To Fix City's Ambulance Problem
Monday, June 13, 2011(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
In the midst of Washington’s second heat wave of the summer,
unions representing the District of Columbia’s emergency medical technicians,
paramedics, fire fighters and registered nurses last Friday urged Mayor Vincent
Gray to ensure that the city’s ambulances are in working order and have
operational air conditioners “in the interests of public health and safety,”
reports National Nurses United. Last week, seven of the city’s Fire and
Emergency Medical Service Department 25 basic life support ambulances—or 28
percent—were out of service. Many ambulances suffered from dysfunctional
air-conditioning systems, and one ambulance with no working a.c. was ordered
back in service even though a Department of Health inspector ordered it off the
road after finding the patients’ compartment was 107 degrees. Another
ambulance had rigged a makeshift box fan to try to cool the patient compartment.
“It is simply unacceptable for patients in need of emergency care to either
not have an ambulance to transport them when needed or to have to be transported
in an ambulance without a functioning air-conditioner,” union leaders wrote in
a letter to Mayor Gray. They urged the Mayor to “devote the resources
necessary to maintain and improve [the city’s] fleet of emergency vehicles so
they are always in proper working order,” as well as have a sufficient number
of reserve emergency vehicles to use as back-up, and increase Department of
Health inspections of emergency vehicles and ensure that FEMS is not allowed to
countermand orders by health inspectors. - photo courtesy
Beechwood Photography