Troy adding fourth ambulance
Federal relief money will be used to address high volume of calls
The city plans to spend up to $500,000 of its federal American Rescue Plan funds to pay overtime to deploy a fourth fire department ambulance during a daily 12-hour period when there is a high volume of emergency calls.
The fire department is short 13 firefighters, about 10 percent of its budgeted staff, and there are only three candidates on its hiring list that meet the requirement to be a certified paramedic to join the department, which answers 12,000 calls annually.
The additional ambulance will be on duty from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Meanwhile, the city will study the department’s operations and staffing while developing a plan for how to deal with the situation. There is no set time period for the additional staffing.
Troy is not alone in facing pressures on delivering ambulance service. Rensselaer County’s rural towns have difficulties in fielding emergency medical services squads and similar situations have occurred around the state and across the country.
“The EMS system nationally is under extreme stress,” Fire Chief Eric Mcmahon said Wednesday.
“We have lots of nursing home calls. We have a lot of other calls as well,” Mcmahon said. “Our call volumes warrant additional staff.”
The Fire Department has also dispatched its advanced life support ambulances out into the
We have lots of nursing home calls. We have a lot of other calls as well. Our call volumes warrant additional staff.”
— Troy Fire Chief Eric Mcmahon
county to assist rural ambulance squads, Mcmahon confirmed.
Mayor Patrick Madden told the City Council Tuesday night during a budget review for the police and fire departments that he would send the proposal for added staffing with its annual estimated $500,000 cost for the council to take up during its November Finance Committee meeting. The city plans to draw from its $42.8 million in American Rescue Plan money to cover
the ambulance costs.
“The ambulances are very busy,” Madden said.
The city ambulance service is budgeted to earn $2.2 million in 2022 based on fees charged for transporting patients.
The city has three ambulances but in some instances requires firefighters to swing between answering ambulance calls and fire alarms. This is the second time the city has turned to overtime to bolster its ambulance
coverage.
During the coronavirus pandemic onslaught in 2020 the city added a fourth ambulance to provide service when another ambulance was pulled off duty to be disinfected after a call.
Firefighter Eric Wisher, president of the Troy Uniformed Fire Fighters Association, the department’s largest union, told the council that the fire department’s current budget doesn’t address the safety issues firefighters face in responding to fires, especially those at night. The added ambulance
service plan, Wisher said, fails to address the safety issues caused when firefighters can’t respond to fire alarms due to being out on an ambulance call. Wisher said the city has to attack the staffing issues to ensure that there are enough firefighters on duty to handle fire alarms.
“The fire department may need to be overhauled,” said City Council President Carmella Mantello.