NY POST

EMT GRADS ANSWER CALL

June 18, 2008

With the Emergency Medical Service facing a shortage of EMTs and an overload of calls, officials yesterday welcomed 78 new emergency medical technicians into its ranks.

"We really need to get these young people out there. They're desperately needed," Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta told The Post after presiding at the graduation ceremony at the Fire Academy on Randalls Island.

Last month, Scoppetta told the City Council that the EMS will have to use overtime to fill its shifts this summer because of the EMT shortage.

John Peruggia, chief of the EMS command, yesterday said there were 9,800 more calls to EMS in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year.

"As EMTs, you are the basic backbone of the EMS system in New York City," Peruggia told the grads, whose starting salary is $27,295.