“The Ambulance service is Middlebury's own "bail out"--public money finances them and they keep the profit. We can get it for free”
Mr. DeAngelis continues to mischaracterize how the MVFD Ambulance is funded and operated. He would like you to believe that the MVFD Ambulance is 100% funded by Taxpayer money. Incorrect. The truth is, that the Town’s contribution, when looking at all the costs and expenses in running such an operation, is a relatively small investment, that reaps great benefits for the community.
What the Town contributes:
1) Fuel.
2) Insurance on the vehicles and for the few members who are not cross-trained as firefighters.
What the MVFD contributes:
1) All equipment and supplies.
2) Oxygen for the police officer’s vehicles.
3) Call Alerting Pagers for volunteers.
4) The MVFD pays $80,000 per year for ALS (Advance Life Support) services from Campion Ambulance. This is a cost normally picked up by the Taxpayers. The MVFD pays the bill.
This also guarantees that Middlebury has available a Paramedic car that will respond to Town 24 hours a day. There is a medic always on call. No hour waits for an ambulance, which has happened to others who have no such arrangement.
5) Training. The ambulance will not roll unless we have MRTs and EMTs to staff it. The MVFD will be launching a campaign this fall to attract new MRTs and EMTs. These new members will have to be trained, and this is where the money will come from.
Recertification expenses for existing MRTs and EMTs are also paid from this account,
6) Most importantly, the fund pays 100% for any new ambulance. Currently, Middlebury has a new ambulance on order. The price tag is rapidly approaching $190,000.00. Not one penny of the cost of this new ambulance will come from taxpayer funds.
All remaining funds that are left at the end of the year go back into an account to start saving up for the next ambulance, and for any other equipment the Department deems necessary for the continual successful operation of EMS in Middlebury.
This is an extraordinary deal for Middlebury Taxpayers.
To suggest that this fund be used to quote “bailout” the Town is ridiculous and would be foolish. It would be the equivalent of killing the “goose that laid the golden egg.” The Ambulance Fund is not a bottomless pit. It’s continual success hinges on two key elements.
1) Keeping government interference out of what is now working successfully privately.
If the Town starts to tap from this fund, there will not be the funds in the account the next time a new ambulance needs to be purchased. The Town will be faced with the same apparatus replacement woes they are realizing now.
2) Staffing the ambulance with MRTs and EMTs. If these dedicated individuals stop responding, the fund will simply disappear. The MVFD is only collecting funds if our ambulance is transporting the patient.
What needs to be done in this community, is to motivate more residents to help out and to volunteer. The MVFD needs MRTs and EMTs. Our ambulance will not roll at all unless people volunteer.
The Department will train you. Day and evening classes will be available this fall. Call Fire HQ for more details.
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7 comments:
we can just call Campion, AMR, Hunter, etc for any ambulance services needed. Its cheaper and they would be happy to get our business.
to Anonymous
1Do you know for a fact if it is cheaper 2 Do you know how much would it be to have a campion come to town. ill answer for you no and no.
I have no clue who you are but i think your stupid, Ignorant and obviously talking to someone who has political motivation behind them. You Have no clue how good Middlebury has it right now!!! You lose the Ambulance service and your costs will go up.
oh stop. No maintenance and up-keep costs.
The person who calls gets the bill later. Period. No town.
Campion, AMR, Hunter, etc can all provide the service.
Anyone who thinks that AMR, Hunters, Campion, et al will cover Middlebury for free is sadly mistaken. Just ask Torrington what they pay just for the "privlege" of having Campion provide 911 service there. Or how about Cheshire? The town is obligated under state statute (another unfunded mandate, by the way) to not only provide EMS, but to have a system for ALS as well. I can assure you that no businessman in his/her right mind is going to provide these services for free. Yes, the private services do bill. However, they, just like the hospitals, have people who can't afford to pay, or whose insurance does not pay the full cost of the service. Therefore, they also charge the communities they provide coverage to. Certainly they would be happy to get the Town of Middlebury's business. Plan on a minimum of 150,000 to 200,00 per year. Think about it. They currently charge the FD 80,000 just to provide a paramedic. Add the cost of keeping an ambulance available to respond in Middlebury 24hrs per day, 7 days a week, and what do you have? What does the current ambulance service provided by the FD cost the taxpayer? Maybe 25,000-40,000, and that's probably high. It is staffed mostly with firefighters, who are covered under the town's insurance regardless. The two ambulances are insured under the town's blanket policies, and the premium change would be negligible. And, the FD does not have a collection agency or lawyers for those who cannot afford to pay. The taxpaying public does not pay up-keep and maintenance costs, as those are paid out of the user fees the FD charges. It's the same old story......Who cares about them, until it is you who wakes up in the middle of the night with unbearable chest pain, or your child has a terrible asthma attack and can't breathe, or worse........
Mr. Anonymous is right, except maybe for the $20,000 to $40,000 taxpayer cost. Insuring the two cars and a few EMTs cost probably a lot less than $20,000.
The previous poster suggested that if you need an ambulance, just call one of the paid services. The problem is that these paid services get jammed up a lot in Waterbury. The result, no ambulance available. Try to get an ambulance during a winter storm or other extreme weather conditions. Even under normal conditions, paid ambulances from Waterbury can become scarce. Middlebury is called for mutual aid to the city on a regular basis.
There are horror stories of people waiting over 1 hour to get an ambulance in the suburbs. That will not happen in Middlebury, because of the arrangement with Campion. If there is no ambulance, no one will be coming. For example the Taft call over the weekend. MVFD responded to Taft in Watertown via mutual aid, because there was no car available from the paid services.
In Middlebury we have a medic available to our town 24 hours a day. The FD pays $80,000 for that service. On top of that when Middlebury transports with a medic, the FD pays the medic, not the patient. There is no Campion bill sent to the patient. The ALS charges are greatly reduced. If Campion transports and Middlebury is not on-scene, residents get the full brunt of the Campion bill.
The FD has never taken anyone to collections. Campion, et al would not be so understanding.
Also there is a misnomer that the entire ambulance fund is built on the back of Middlebury residents. Not true. MVAs on I-84 and other roads often involve out of town patients. Area doctor’s offices also call Middlebury for patients who do not live in Middlebury. The result, a good portion of the ambulance is funded by out of town patients.
Hiring a paid service to cover Middlebury 24 hours a day would result in a direct increase in your taxes. In a time when the Town is striving to cut expenses, messing with the FD ambulance fund only pushes the Town closer to the paid service scenario. That will cost everyone more money.
The optimum solution is to have MVFD ambulance transport all patients. To cover that 100% the MVFD needs more EMTs and MRTs. Become part of the solution. Volunteer to ride on the ambulance.
I work for Campion. Good luck getting a rig here in the time that it takes Middlebury to respond...or even four times that. Half the time we're just arriving with a patient at the hospital and starting to triage them in the ER when we're dispatched to another call. That means we still have to get the patient admitted, triage them, sign them over to the hospital, transfer them to a hospital bed, put the stretcher back in the rig, clean up any biohazards and messes in the rig, replenish any supplies we used and then respond. If we're going from St. Mary's to Middlebury, that can easily be 20...30 minutes. We also have no idea where we're going in towns like Middlebury, because Waterbury is our primary service area.
Pat, I've read a lot about you. You're like a little teenage girl with a myspace page. If you want to make a difference, grow some balls and go out and get involved instead of sitting home in the dark, touching yourself to pictures of St. John, and writing in your online diary. Go become a firefighter or EMT, I dare you.
If you ruin Middlebury's emergency services, I hope to God you're the first miserable bastard to have a heart attack, and when we show up 30 minutes later and you're blue and on the floor - whoops, we warned you.
Actually, if you need a medic and the FD transports you to the hospital with that medic on-board, the FD pays 100% of your ALS bill. If Campion transports you instead of the FD, you get whacked with the whopping paramedic Campion bill. One more reason to support the FD.
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