THE CHIEF LEADER

EMS Unions: Hospital Closings Will Affect Ambulance Responses

 
By ARI PAUL

February 27, 2009

Emergency Medical Service unions have voiced fears that the slated closings of two private hospitals in Queens will compound operational cuts in the Fire Department and overburden medical response in the city.

St. John's Queens and Mary Immaculate Hospitals are set to close by March, and both have provided privately run ambulance services to the FDNY system. The FDNY has already proposed cutting 30 EMS ambulance lines and nine supervisor lines. It also reduced EMS staffing for HazTac response by half, according to union sources.

Warns of Potential Backlog

After meeting with FDNY Chiefs to discuss service cuts Feb. 17, the leaders from the two uniformed responder unions said that three private hospitals will begin to provide ambulance services—North Shore University Hospital, New York Hospital-Queens and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

Patrick J. Bahnken, who as president of Local 2507 of District Council 37 represents Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, feared that with the loss of the two hospitals and the operational cuts in the FDNY, there could be a backlog in service that could increase response times over the coming years.

DC 37 Local 3621 President Tom Eppinger, who represents EMS officers, said that the FDNY should expand EMS services instead of bringing in private ambulance lines because those operators will be more likely to steer patient care and revenue away from Health and Hospital Corporations facilities and bring them to the hospitals where they are based.

'They Aren't in Our League'

"If the Fire Department can't provide the municipal service, they have a private vendor come in, and that starts the privatization of the system," Mr. Eppinger said in a phone interview. "They're not up to the same quality as us."

Both unions have advocated higher pay for their members in order to stop attrition in the agency, and have also complained that more lucrative careers in the fire suppression side of the department have encouraged Paramedics to seek promotion as Firefighters.

"We need to stop this from being a transient workforce," Mr. Eppinger