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Rethink medical response

The Spokesman-Review

The city budget needs reduction.

Perhaps the time has finally come when we can decouple the function of fire response from that of emergency medical response. Responding to a medical emergency with a firetruck, full team AND a medical response crew/truck is hopelessly redundant and ruinously expensive – that is unless you believe the position of the firefighters’ union.

We now have near instant communication to customize our type of emergency response, with trained 911 operators that can reliably determine whether you are on fire or having a medical emergency. Let’s save a bunch of money, reduce and centralize our fire stations, and enable speedy medical response teams, for the general benefit of the community and our budget.

With regard to the issue of fire team response times; fast firetrucks save property – maybe. Fast medical response saves LIVES every day, especially when they don’t have to wait for the guys in big boots and slow trucks.

Dan Chadwick

Spokane

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