DETROIT (WXYZ) — Paramedics and EMTs stay busy around the clock in Detroit. As soon as they drop a patient off at a hospital, they're back in service to help someone else. And it's no easy job. They've been physically attacked and are often accosted.
On Wednesday came a controversial order from the Detroit Fire Department's Assistant Chief of EMS Division, advising all EMS employees that there was going to be a "change in dispatch procedure."
The order indicated medical calls for service will be "fast-tracked" while additional information is being received and the runs will be coded only as "Unknown Medical."
Detroit Fire Fighters Association President Thomas Gehart said sending EMS personnel on runs without basic but critical information could put lives at risk.
"As soon as this bulletin came out to our members, our phones were blowing up. They're scared. They're nervous," Gehart told 7 Action News Thursday morning. "We want to work to get the response times decreased. But if it's going to come at the safety of our members, we're not in on that."
Gehart stressed that Detroit's EMS personnel are the best in the country and that they have not and would not slow down their response to situations. But he said, under the new order, EMS units that are close to locations won't be given the information they need before arriving on scene.
The union issued a safety alert to their members Wednesday, urging them to "make sure it is safe before entering a scene."
In the safety alert, union officials wrote, "The DFFA believes this change in EMS response procedure may put responding EMS personnel's lives in danger. Having the most information before arriving on a scene gives EMS personnel time to prepare and provide the best care possible, and -- critically -- allows EMS personnel to assess whether it's safe to proceed to the scene."
Union Vice President Christopher Smith said they are also concerned that without the current urgency to get them the information needed for each run, that critical information will lag.
"There's no urgency for the call takers to get this information and more time will lapse for our responders," Smith said.
Detroit Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms said he'd do an interview with 7 Action News, but on the way to his office, a spokesperson from the mayor's office called to say that everything was being called off. There would be no interview and the order was off the table.
Fire Commissioner Simms later released the following statement:
Due to the concerns expressed by our union leadership we are going to temporarily rescind this order until we are able to sit down with them and explain it in greater detail. Once we do that, we are hopeful they will see this as a worthwhile pilot approach to providing the public a faster response to medical runs. It is important for everyone to understand that any runs involving injuries due to use of a weapon or other act of aggression always have been and would continue to be dispatched as a police-first run, not an EMS-first run, for the safety of fire/ems personnel. Our goal is always to provide the best service possible to the citizens of Detroit.
Union officials say the only real way to shorten response times is to hire more people.
Smith said, "It's really that simple."
