Westchester Magazine article on VAC's

[Bnechis 3,961]

http://www.westchestermagazine.com/Westchester-Magazine/April-2015/Are-Volunteer-Ambulance-Corps-A-thing-Of-The-Past-In-Westchester/

 

note sure urge when this article was published.

[somebuffyguy 190]

I'm gonna take a wild guess based off the url that this was published in April 2015.

[Morningjoe 162]

Always good to revisit this article and topic, especially when a VAC drops a call during a major call... Such as an extrication this morning.

[x635 4,066]

Doesn't matter when the article was published, because it could still be published tomorrow and the problems exactly the same. I think it's an excellent piece that the author reflected in the correct light.

 

VAC's provided a valuable service when Westchester was smaller, more affordable, and people truly cared about the communities they lived in and the neighbors they lived with. I used to know everybody in the community I grew up in, it was blue collar, now it is a whole different world.

 

Just like you're never going to find volunteer nurses, the volunteer EMT is becoming extinct as well. The training is increasing, and there's no attempts to make it any easier. Whereas VAC's used to respond to mostly true emergencies within the communities, they are now forced to deal with the abuse of EMS, especially by mammoth senior citizen "health care" communities that have turned EMS agencies upside down.  That also contributes significantly to volunteer burnout.  EMS is also slowly emerging as a profession on a national level, and New York State will be the last to embrace that.

 

When Westchester decides to let 60 Control actually use their judgment to decide what resources to send, which units where, and for Westchester to be a single, unified regional system, public/private partnership, is when the problem will be solved.

[velcroMedic1987 330]

Puuulleeeasseee!  The Journal News articles from the 80's "Where You Live Could Cost Your Life" could be republished today with little change.  Except that paramedics will now be sitting with the patient waiting for an ambulance.