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As a 20 year vollie I can honestly say the EMS in Nassau county should be 100% paid full-time employees. Whether it is through the NCPD ambulance bureau or a private contract agency is definitely open to a fair objective debate. As far as the fire side, the activity doesn't really call for a full time, fully paid service. A career/volunteer combination system that works in many other suburban communities around the nation would be an ideal solution to honestly explore. The big roadblock is who would do the study? the Nassau county Fire service, specifically the fire Commission is corrupt (so is the fire academy but that's a separate issue), a good 'ole boys club. There's no way for an experienced knowledgeable and independent firefighter to make their way in there to try and effect real positive change. Each fire district is it's own entity and they can do as the please with little to no oversight.
Could someone please explain how the Nassau Police Ambulance system works?
* How many ambulances are there County wide per day?
* Is it a one person ambulance & if transporting, a Police Officer has to actually drive the ambulance to the hospital?
* If this service exists county wide why is there a need for Volli Ambulances?
* If this service is inadequate why not disband it and rely totally on Vollies?
at least an ambulance has a function. you should be questioning the 4 million dollar budget oyster bay public safety has acquired. they have equipment to equal the nypd and what is it used for? so town Politian's can have an air conditioned place to hang during concerts or out door functions? they don't even generate revenue for the town. ever see one issuing a summons? ever see one just driving around aimlessly? ever see one do anything but direct traffic at a town park?
Exchange Ambulance of the Islips in East Islip has both paid and volunteer EMS. I looked into it because I was a volunteer EMT back from 1992-2000. You don't become paid right off the bat but they do have paid EMS.
Holbrook FD has gone to paid and unpaid ambulance crews to provide the service required.
Does anyone know how to volunteer for the Nassau County EMS department? Is this affiliated with the Fire department or police department?
It is a division of the Nassau County Police Department. The ambulances are staffed by "AMTs" (Ambulance Medical Technician) who are state certified Critical Care EMTs, they are full time civilian employees of the NCPD.
Reply to L.I.N.Y. NSLIJ staffs their 911 ambulance with 1 emt and 1 paramedic. They are currently in only 3-4 villages. N.C.P.D. E.A.B ambulance has narcotics for over a year, and their staff is 50% or greater Paramedics and the rest are emt -cc's.
I'm posting this as both a taxpayer and a volunteer EMT with my local FD. I hope you'll pardon me if I don't specify which town/department, but since this is just my own opinion I don't want to speak on behalf of either.
The paid vs. volunteer debate is one which often comes up both within the fire service and without. So does the "excess" of equipment in Nassau County.
While there have been studies done by proponents of both paid and vollie systems, they're usually incomplete, flawed, or heavily biased.
I was curious just as a tax payer to see if I was getting "ripped off". The best and fastest way of resolving this question was to compare the cost per capita of the fire and EMS protection of my town with that of the closest and largest paid fire/EMS system around.
Looking at the FDNY annual budget and NYC's population, I found a cost of $190 per resident per year.
Looking at the section of my tax bill for my local FD (and county-wide fire prevention), I found a cost of $145 per resident per year.
Obviously the argument can be made that it's not a fair comparison, as the FDNY is far different than my local FD and fire/EMS services in Nassau. And, of course, some of the NCPD's budget goes to EMS, which also provides coverage to my town.
In any paid system, payroll is going to account for the majority of the budget. Right now payroll in Nassau County FDs is generally very low. So without having an undue tax burden we can maintain a large number of firehouses and apparatus. And while it's true that not every town needs 8 engines and 3 tower ladders, they do need them sometimes.
And when there's a major incident, as a taxpayer, I'm glad for the "excess" of equipment mere blocks away from my house. Would I be willing to cut that down to save maybe $50/year in taxes? No. And I don't think that cutting the number of apparatus and firehouses yet adding a MASSIVE amount of payroll would end up being less expensive for taxpayers.
Obviously others may have a different opinion on that matter.
Also, my department (as many do) has a daytime paid medic (at the EMT-CC or Paramedic level) which responds in an ambulance. Their response time is as good, or better than, EAB's within our district. At night we have a flycar (SUV with supplies comparable to an ALS ambulance) that is staffed by vollies who respond with the car from their house. Again, this results in as-good or better-than response times when compared to the county ambulances.
I'm not saying the fire/EMS service in Nassau is perfect; Far from it. I'm also not a good ol' boy. I do enjoy my volunteer work, but if I saw that the volunteer system was in danger of killing people or overcharging me on my taxes, I'd be advocating a paid service. However, it does work quite well. Most of the vollie service's problems are political. When it comes to responding to calls, putting out fires, helping aided, and doing all of the various critical things that we do, I think we do it very well.
That's just my 2c.
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you can use an ambulance
