Staffing struggles make Milton Rescue unable to provide full service
MILTON — Due to new state guidelines and a lack of interested volunteers, Milton Rescue has recently been unable to adequately staff ambulances 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
COVID-19 has not only deterred people from applying to work at Milton Rescue, but also impeded the training of new Emergency Medical Technicians.
Michaela Foody, Milton's director of public safety, said Milton Rescue was able to maintain full in-service operation up until July, but then volunteers and employees moved away or got new jobs.
These positions became difficult to fill as many did not want to volunteer for a job that would put them at a higher risk for exposure, she said. In addition, EMT classes, which are a requirement in Vermont, were cancelled until recently.
Recommendations from the state encourage rescue departments to limit the amount of people on the ambulance during calls, which has made it even more difficult to get new people the needed experience.
Typically on the truck there are two people with Vermont EMS licenses, a crew chief and a driver. But due to a new pandemic-related state guidelines, only two people can be on the truck during calls — the driver, who now has to be EMS-certified and a crew chief. This prevents new members from being trained on the truck, Foody said.
Due to these reasons, Milton Rescue has been unable to adequately staff ambulances, and therefore Foody said there is no Milton ambulance service about once a week.
"No matter what happens there will always be an ambulance responding to a call in Milton whether it’s Milton Rescue or a mutual aid ambulance."
Michaela Foody, director of public safety
Since July, the most amount of time they have been out of service consecutively is 48 hours.
When Milton Rescue is out of service, there is a mutual aid list of ambulances that will respond to calls in Milton. Colchester Rescue is next in line to take a call from Milton. If they are unable to make it, then Saint Michael’s College will take it.
This list is eight ambulances deep for every rescue squad in District 3 of Vermont.
“No matter what happens there will always be an ambulance responding to a call in Milton whether it’s Milton Rescue or a mutual aid ambulance,” Foody said.
According to Colchester Rescue Chief Scott Crady, Colchester Rescue has not been out of service at all due to COVID-19.
If Milton is unable to attend a call, Colchester Rescue will go in their place, but then that leaves Colchester unable to attend any calls they receive in their own town in that time frame.
A different rescue squad will have to respond to calls in Colchester and many calls will have to be made in order to organize that.
“I've seen days where we've been up [to Milton] four times in a 12-hour shift period,” Crady said.
Foody said local community members can also help fill in the gaps.
“Milton Rescue has a first response aspect of our department that allows members who live in town to respond to calls when the ambulance is unavailable,” Foody said.
These community members are called “jumpers” and are certified EMTs who are not on duty but are able to respond in their own personal vehicles. They carry basic medical equipment that can be used to stabilize a patient and provide immediate care until the responding ambulance arrives.
"Does it create hardship? It does. Not only on Colchester, but on all the surrounding services, because it's inevitable if we cover something in Milton now someone is covering something here and then that creates that domino effect."
Colchester Rescue Chief Scott Crady
Milton Rescue is looking to acquire more staff, and the state of Vermont is aiding in their search for new members by approving a COVID-19 Relief Funding Education program that provides funding for tuition for EMS training programs as well as new hybrid EMT courses.
This program provides vouchers for different licensure programs including a $500 voucher for Emergency Medical Responder classes, $1,000 voucher for Emergency Medical Technician classes, $1,500 voucher for Advanced EMT classes and a $18,000 voucher for Paramedic training courses. These vouchers cover most, if not all, of the costs for these training programs.
“I am hesitant to estimate but I would say within the next couple of months we will be back to full staffing,” Foody said.
With this new funding, Milton rescue has received a lot of applications and is now able to process them and get new members training.
But until new staff is trained, this problem persists and it will affect the community and its ambulances.
“We are happy and willing to help Milton,” Crady said. “Does it create hardship? It does. Not only on Colchester, but on all the surrounding services, because it's inevitable if we cover something in Milton now someone is covering something here and then that creates that domino effect.”
