untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint currently has one Paramedic vehicle, although many firefighters are trained paramedics.
Genesee County, in their infinite wisdom, cancelled the agreement with Flint over the paramedic millage and kept it all for themselves. So the $580,000 the City of Flint would have received for paramedic services has been kept by the county.
Flint has five fire stations-although one is routinely closed- and the firefighters have, when called, provided exemplary paramedic services. the loss of the millage will no longer allow the firefighters to be trained to keep theri paramedic status.
Flint is now served by one Genesee County paramedic for each shift.
While Brown has been threatening the AFSME 1600 union with severe cuts, he could easily save money by eliminating the paramedic vehicle. I have been informed that this rig answers to very few calls and sometimes only once a day. There is no paramedic millage money to reimburse for services provided by the vehicle. Also I am informed that the paramedic using the vehicle receives an additional $119 per day on top of their regular salary. Firefighters say removing this vehicle from service could save money and possibly over $400,000 per year.
The Medical Control Board oversees ambulance companies and these ambulances are supposed to be assigned to a base and not free roving. I now see ambulances just sitting for many hours in locations far from their bases, such as church parking lots, etc. These ambulances obviously can pick up the slack along with the paramedic from the county. |
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