Gothamist
By Tiffany Hanssen and Elizabeth Shwe | November 18, 2024
Emergency response times in New York City have been getting longer, year after year. That’s according to Mayor Eric Adams’ annual management report.
City Councilmember Joann Ariola, who represents parts of Queens, and Oren Barzilay, president of EMS Local 2507 Uniformed EMTs, Paramedics, and Fire Inspectors of FDNY, joined WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen to talk about the dangers of increases wait times.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Tiffany Hanssen: Oren, after a call is made to 911,those first couple of minutes are critical, so I’m wondering what happens when responders just aren’t quick enough?
Oren Barzilay: It’s not a secret that after four to six minutes of not breathing, you’re going to be pronounced either clinically or biologically dead. So when it takes us over 10 minutes to get to a critical incident, such as somebody who’s not breathing, or having a stroke, or is choking, their life expectancy decreases significantly.
I’m curious what you’ve been hearing from your members, the emergency responders in Local 2507 about these longer wait times. What are they telling you in terms of why this is happening?
Barzilay: They can only do one assignment at a time. They are running across the city all day long, every day, 24 hours. The issue that they’re faced with is the calls are coming in more rapidly in recent years, however, our resources have remained the same.
Before the merger of New York City EMS into the FDNY, we used to have nurses at our 911 call centers. And when they call of somebody, you know, breaking their nail or have an ingrown hair, toothache, that call would go to that nurse and that nurse will explain to them that they do not need an ambulance for this. Go to your local doctor. Go to an urgent care center.
You know, calling 911 and arriving at the hospital with an ambulance does not get you seen quicker. They’ll be putting you in the waiting room with the rest of the people who are in the waiting room. It’s a huge lift. And unless they bring back the nurses and start educating the public, this is going to be continuing. Well, for eternity.