SW Paramedics

The South Windsor Town Council has done a serious disservice to the residents of the town.  On January 6, the council chose to deny the in-town EMS service to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS, Paramedics) [and Basic Life Support (BLS, EMTs)] service to the residents, businesses and visitors of the town.  Why would anyone want to deny such additional higher level of care to their own constituents?  Why "outsource" such critical care to an out-of -town commercial service (that covers multiple towns) and displace a community orientated service that has served the town for over 30 years?  The town could have had its own paramedics stationed in town and still have the back-up resources that the commercial service has been providing for years.

That commercial service provides primary and mutual aid to 15 area towns, from Glastonbury to Union, with 9 ALS units and 1 SUV, during the daytime hours and only 5 ALS units at night and on weekends.  The population that this commercial service covers is approximately is 111,510 people in its primary service area and 192,092 in the mutual aid areas.  The total square mileage covered is 69 in its primary service area and 408 over the mutual aid area.  In additional to that, this commercial service provides back-up coverage for its sister service that covers Hartford, Wethersfield and Rocky Hill.  With such sparse coverage and shuffling of units to provide overlapping coverage, it would have been wise of the council to establish its own in-town paramedic service.  South Windsor Ambulance Corps and the Ambulance Service of Manchester have enjoyed a congenial and cooperative relationship for years.  No local service, be it Glastonbury, Wethersfield, Ellington, etc., can compete with a commercial service.  That's not the point,  the commercial service provides primary emergency care to high density areas, in addition to hospital transfers, and provides back-up mutual aid to other towns as call volume necessitates.

Was the council's vote actually out of spite in response to previous management, disregarding the advances and improvements made by the new management?  South Windsor Ambulance Corps was already and PREPARED, having spent over $100,000 on equipment and medications, to start ALS service starting January 1, 2014, but the town manager asked South Windsor Ambulance to delay the ALS start up.  The council's vote has not changed the current arrangement of service provided to the town, except to deny the 14 paramedics (with at least 7 more pending) that South Windsor Ambulance Corps could provide. Now the taxpayers will have the additional budget expense of legal fees and other expenses as the town manager fights the State of CT regarding the in-town's permit to operate.  What kind of legal liability has this council exposed the town to by denying the additional level of ALS service?  The town council thinks that they may have made the best choice for cost and service, but over time it may prove far more costly than they may have anticipated.