The Paulding County Commissioners have been receiving concerns about the current state of the EMS response time in the county. Over the last several years the number has increased and the Commissioners decided to bring together the various groups of Emergency Services Personnel to see if some solutions could be made.
On Thursday, January 30 the Paulding County Commissioners invited the directly involved personnel throughout the county to seek their opinion and find out if a solution could be procured for this rising concern. The immediate problem seems to be that not enough individuals are willing to serve as volunteers anymore. Many of those who served are retiring, and new people are not filling the ranks of community service.
Since the number of volunteers are lower than past years, and it is improbable to force people to volunteer, then a solution must be worked out between the communities and the volunteers who are serving them.
The Commissioners asked and many gave their opinions about the current state of emergency services in the county. Some stated that things were going fine and others voiced that there certainly were problems in towns, such as Payne. They have been working on trying to get their response better by bringing on full time day staff at the EMS facility.
Sheriff Jason Landers opened in sharing that this was a common problem across the states. He continued that one of the counties in Ohio has several of the Deputies who are EMTs, who go out as soon as a call comes in and are trained to respond, though without a second person, transportation could not take place until the ambulance arrived. The officers in these stated counties also have some equipment and medical bags to help as a first responder situation. Of course, it would cost money to bring on additional Deputies, vehicles and equipment.
It was also noted that one of the problems seems to be educating the public about the “How a Volunteer EMS works” and the need for more volunteers to make sure that the community is taken care of.
The general consensus to the question presented, “Do we need a countywide EMS?” was “Possibly.” The next step will be to look up what has worked in other counties, forming an investigative committee with all of the departments sending a representative to the committee.
