Ambulance Volunteers Appeal for Paid EMT - Patch.com

[Resqmedic]

As a medic who had to work with the model of siting in the bus waiting for my volunteer partner to drive in from home, I agree, it will do nothing to have only one full time employee. Better off to have 2 part time people manning the station. Which of course would kill their $160k budget.

[Kiwiology]

This is a common situation here in New Zed; a small station will have one (or two or three) paid Officers and an ensemble of volunteers who roster on as they are able (minimum of 2x month) so if there is no volly the ambulance is half crewed and responds as such. A one person paid roster (96 hours/pw) is still out there, but it doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to, most rural stations have two or three or four paid Officers to ensure coverage 24/7 (even if it is a half-crewed response) and I know many have been actively upgraded in the past few years to reduce the incidence of 96 hour work rosters (which is basically 4x4 with on call 100% nights) as this is technically illegal with our legislated driving hours and it is very unacceptable industrially.

With $160k we could employ about 2.7 Paramedics on a salary of $55k!

[Chief1C]

Raise rates to the highest legal amount and removed any subscription or membership programs. You'd be amazed how much comes in, and how many people you piss off, sometimes to the point of violence.

[Arctickat]

As a medic who had to work with the model of siting in the bus waiting for my volunteer partner to drive in from home,

You had to take a bus to get to the ambulance for a call? You'd have been better off if your partner would pick you up on the way.

[Chief1C]

I believe he is calling the ambulance, a bus.

[Arctickat]

I believe he is calling the ambulance, a bus.

That's just silly, a bus is a totally different sort of vehicle than an ambulance is. That's like calling a police car a cab, or a fire truck a water truck, or a paramedic an ambulance driver. I'm sure that couldn't be what he meant in using such a derogatory term to identify the emergency vehicle he works in.

[Chief1C]

That's just silly, a bus is a totally different sort of vehicle than an ambulance is. That's like calling a police car a cab, or a fire truck a water truck, or a paramedic an ambulance driver. I'm sure that couldn't be what he meant in using such a derogatory term to identify the emergency vehicle he works in.

Yeah, okay, ambulance driver.

[Arctickat]

Got a promotion did ya?

[Chief1C]

Oui

[Arctickat]

Congrats.