Published: 01/25/2008 Officials seek to pull plug on medical mutual aid By Mike Stucka Staff writer
TOPSFIELD - Sharing may be caring. But when it comes to sharing care, town officials are at odds. Two selectmen unsuccessfully tried to end Topsfield's agreements with other towns to help each other out in medical emergencies, saying they limit Topsfield's ability to respond to its own patients. The town administrator is now tasked with studying the issue, known as "medical mutual aid." Selectmen Chairman John McArdle, who led the charge Tuesday night, said Topsfield's paramedics now could be sent to back up a private ambulance service in Ipswich and regularly get called to help in Middleton. "It is nice to talk about taking care of other people, but in these days of limited resources, your basic duty is to the people of your town," he said. "Topsfield funds a level of effort which works rather well for the town. Other towns may not do so, and I do not believe that we should take up the slack potentially for other towns." Fire Chief Ronald Giovannacci, who didn't attend Tuesday's discussion, said mutual aid provides critical backups, such as when the town has to handle several separate calls for service simultaneously. "To receive mutual aid, you have to give mutual aid," he said. "It's a system, and everybody has to participate for it to work. There's no community in the county that doesn't participate." McArdle said the town has two employees who can help with advanced life support, which would stretch Topsfield's ability to help sick residents. Giovannacci said the town actually has seven ALS-trained employees, is hiring another and has two more finishing their studies. "We would never put any of our citizens in jeopardy," Giovannacci said, about helping out other towns. "They often request it (mutual aid), and we're not able to do it. We only provide it when it's available." He said Topsfield's paramedics get extra experience on Middleton ambulance runs, where they sometimes help out individually but rarely as part of their duties for Topsfield. A paramedic who inserts a breathing tube once a year might not do as good a job as one who inserts the tubes once a month, he said. Topsfield has also reaped some financial benefits from the experience by getting a cut from Middleton ambulance fees. "Last year, I think we spent around $3,000 in payroll, and Middleton reimbursed us $27,000," Giovannacci said.
Selectman Dick Gandt, who also voted to end the medical mutual aid agreements, said he is worried about Topsfield serving as a routine backup to other communities. When employees are outside the town, they can't help the town. "The objective is to limit the times they're not available to Topsfield residents," Gandt said. Topsfield contracts with Lyons for ambulance service and ambulance transport, but the Fire Department has two equipped ambulances. Calls for town ambulances under the mutual aid agreements are relatively rare, Giovannacci said. "In the last year, we've been to Ipswich once for EMS. We've never been to Byfield. We've never been to Hamilton. I think twice the ambulance has been to Middleton in the last year," he said. By contrast, Giovannacci said, "Middleton has been here in past years many times when Lyons didn't have an ambulance available." Gandt and McArdle said they didn't know of any cases where Topsfield residents were left without protection because of the mutual aid agreements.
Posted by: rg1283
Retarded selectmen. Unless it is like Providence, RI Fire, where mutual aid is to the point that surrounding EMS agencies end up sitting in providence responding to Providence's EMS calls and getting tied up in providence. Providence Fire should use privates to agument, but hey its RI.
Posted by: Sgt Jack
No it's any where close to Providence....more like they get a medical maybe every other day...this is more a matter of some old townie selectman that thinks his town is an Island...he's no fan of public safety....
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