When
the City of Reading recently prepared the budget for 2005 one item
was noticeably under budgeted, EMS Services. The amount for 2005 only
includes enough funds to get the service through June and Officials
explained that after July 1st the service will be cut. What they haven't
mentioned is who will respond to the more than 10,000 calls EMS runs
annually.
The situation is currently ongoing, and
speculating what is being planned or what impact this news will have
upon the citizens isn't the point of this story. We want everyone who
comes to visit our website to know that we hold the current EMS service
in high regards.
The current system of EMS in Reading
is second to none. The program has gotten high marks from those who
have seen it in operation. Other cities have come to look it over as
a model for their operations. In July 2004, a story in the
USA Today ranked Reading EMS well above many larger cities
in the categories of response time, turnaround time and patient care.
Another plus to Reading EMS is 28 dedicated Paramedics and staff personnel.
They provide the citizens of Reading the best possible pre-hospital
care available all for the ridiculously low price of $300,000.00 annually,
the amount officials claim the system is losing.
City officials have made the comment
that they are not required to provide the citizens with an Ambulance
service and that's true. However, take note that when the codes which
dictate what services a city like Reading must provide to it's citizens
were written, there was no such concept of Emergency Medical Service.
Another point to ponder is the City's responsibility
for the high crime statistics that Reading currently enjoys. Medical
calls resulting from this crime make up a large part of the system's
responses and, unfortunately, the City never sees any money from these
patients.
