Same basic mindset as with LAFD that requires a fire truck team to be dispatched on every call even though 98% are medical only calls.
A city that isn’t growing and rejuvenating is a stagnant and dead city.[/quote]
I agree.
Old folks on fixed income in a no-growth city won’t be paying the pay raises of public employees.
It’s kinda screwed to dispatch fire engines for medical calls. I’ve noticed that way too often.[/quote]
In many cases, the fire engines/trucks are dispatched because they can arrive on scene sooner. In many (most) departments, there are more trucks/engines than ambulances because when there’s a fire, they need all the trucks (and often bring trucks in from neighboring departments, too). They typically don’t need multiple ambulances all at once. If the ambulances are in a distant location or on other calls, the patients can be treated sooner; and in emergency services, response times are everything.
Anyway, the trucks/engines that you see dispatched to medical calls almost always have paramedics (that tends to be the requirement these days, though there might be some with older EMTs) and all the medical equipment. They can treat the patient sooner. The difference between an engine/truck and ambulance is that the truck can’t transport.
Additionally, most ambulances only have two employees on board (two paramedics or paramedic/EMT team). On many calls, they need additional personnel because one or two people might be working directly on the patient, another communicating with the hospital, another setting up equipment/medication, one to possibly deal with transport/helicopter landings, etc. (you don’t see this at the site, they almost always have to transport the patient to an off-site landing zone). Then, there are the 300++ pound patients who need to be carried down stairs or through narrow passageways, etc.
Believe it or not, the fire departments do know what they’re doing. Even though you might not understand what’s going on, it doesn’t mean that they’re wasting resources or taxpayers’ money.
