New York Daily News

Bravest burning millions

Study: Cut fire trucks, boost ambulances

- BY JILLIAN JORGENSEN

The city could more wisely spend the $1.1 billion it costs to provide emergency medical services, a budget watchdog group says, in part by reducing the role fire engines play in responding to 911 calls — and then considerin­g whether it really needs all of its engine companies.

In a new report, the Citizens Budget Commission recommends ultimately reducing the number of engine companies, which for years has been a political nonstarter.

The suggestion comes as the Fire Department, which is responsibl­e for responding to medical emergencie­s, has seen a steady uptick in the number of calls — responding to 1.5 million in 2017, up 36% since 2000. At the same time, the number of fires in the city has decreased. But while EMS work makes up 84% of the department’s workload, it accounts for just 30% of its budget, the report’s author, Mariana Alexander, a research associate at the Citizens Budget Commission, said.

“The Fire Department has adequate resources to do its job, and it’s about reassessin­g how those resources are allocated to match its workload,” she said.

Fire engines are only supposed to be dispatched to the most serious medical calls, when time is of the essence — because they can often arrive faster than ambulances. But that quick arrival doesn’t always translate into much help.

While the engines can reduce response time, firefighte­rs can’t provide the same level of care an ambulance crew can. And the engines are much more expensive to staff — with “five or six people on a fire truck, and they’re all paid a lot more than your average EMT or paramedic.”

“Sending a fire engine doesn’t necessaril­y reduce your workload, because the ambulance is still needed to transport,” Alexander added.

Staffing each fire engine costs the city an average of $7.2 million a year — compared with $2.2 million a year on average for an ambulance to make three tours a day.

“If you closed one fire engine company, you could fund 10 additional ambulance tours each day,” she said.

But closing fire engine companies has been a political third rail for years — Mayor de Blasio even got himself arrested protesting the idea under his predecesso­r’s mayoralty.

“It would politicall­y be a very heavy lift for the Fire Department to do,” Alexander acknowledg­ed.

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said the engines are dispatched to life-threatenin­g calls such as cardiac arrest, an unconsciou­s person, or someone choking, in addition to responding to fires.

“Engines also respond to fires and other emergencie­s, and we do not advocate nor support closing any of them, as the report seems to suggest,” Gribbon said.

Reducing the role of fire engine companies isn’t the CBC’s only suggestion — it also called for mounting public campaigns to reduce unnecessar­y requests for ambulances and reducing the focus on response time for minor issues while beefing up the ability to quickly respond to more serious ones.

“Many of the incidents that the Fire Department are responding to are not genuine emergencie­s. These are incidents that either medical care is not needed at all or urgent medical care is not needed,” Alexander said.

The FDNY said it has been working with other city agencies to try to steer people to other forms of medical treatment when appropriat­e.

“We share the CBC’s concern about unnecessar­y or inappropri­ate requests for ambulances — and have been working closely with NYC Health & Hospitals, Greater N.Y. Hospitals Associatio­n. and the city health care networks that are participat­ing in the Medicaid DSRIP program to ID appropriat­e alternativ­e pathways for these patients to receive care,” Gribbon said.

 ??  ?? A watchdog report says FDNY would be more efficient if it shifted some of its $1.1 billion budget from fire companies to increase ambulance runs.
A watchdog report says FDNY would be more efficient if it shifted some of its $1.1 billion budget from fire companies to increase ambulance runs.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States