Report: Emergency services in Maine at breaking point
|Brad Rodgers, WGME, Dec. 6|
NEW GLOUCESTER (WGME)– Emergency medical services are now at a breaking point in Maine.
In its final report, the Commission to Study Emergency Medical Service says it’s the result of inadequate funding and poor recruitment.
Senator Chip Curry (D-Waldo County) co-chaired the Commission to Study Emergency Medical Service in Maine.
“We don’t expect [such poor funding] anywhere else in health care system. Why do we expect it in this essential service of health care?” Curry said.
Firefighter and Advanced EMT Nick Hegarty works part-time for the New Gloucester Fire Department and Hollis Fire and Rescue.
“Even from when I started here just a couple years ago, there were a lot more people then than there is now,” Hegarty said. “A lot of us work multiple jobs. We have to work a bunch of hours in a row to try to make money to just pay our bills and support our families.”
New Gloucester Fire Captain Hale Fitzgerald also works two jobs. He says smaller departments can’t compete with those in larger communities.
“We just lost an employee to another community because they have a little better pay. And you’re sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Fitzgerald said.
Commission members say the most pressing concern is inadequate Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements that are driving up the cost of emergency medical service. That’s especially damaging for departments like New Gloucester that don’t respond to as many calls as those in larger communities.
— Click here to watch the WGME video and read the full story transcript.
— NGX editor’s note: Learn more about the Commission’s report and recommendations in Emily Bader’s Sun Journal article at this link.
