North East officials expected to limit EMS mutual aid

MILLERTON — North East Fire District commissioners have asked Town of North East officials to limit emergency medical service dispatches to Pine Plains and Milan.

A group of fire district commissioners including Millerton Fire Department Chief Keith Roger spoke at the North East Town Board meeting on Thursday, July 9, raising concerns over how often North East’s contracted ambulances are dispatched to Pine Plains and Milan for lower-priority calls.

The Town of North East has a contract with private ambulance provider Empress. Pine Plains and Milan do not currently have contracts with any private ambulance companies. Those communities rely primarily on volunteer emergency medical technicians for EMS calls.

Roger called attention to Pine Plains and Milan’s lack of a contract with Empress, contrasting those communities with the towns of Amenia and Dover. North East, Amenia and Dover each have private ambulance contracts.

“If Amenia is short on a call, Millerton will go down or Dover will go up,” Roger said. “I’m ok with that because these towns also have a contract and they’re paying dearly as well as we are.”

Roger framed the issue in terms of ambulance availability. Mutual aid calls in Pine Plains and Milan can take an ambulance out of service for between 45 minutes to 3 hours if the call requires transport to Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, Roger said, creating the potential for shortages in North East despite the $750,000 annual cost to the town.

“There are times that our town is uncovered — without an ambulance,” Roger said. “The response time would be 45 minutes to an hour if we have an emergency.”

Roger and Fire District President Bill McGhee clarified that lower-priority calls are their primary concerns. EMS dispatches are sorted into one of four priority levels, ranging from heart attacks and other potentially fatal incidents at priority one to non-life-threatening issues like assistance being lifted back into bed at priority four.

Town Supervisor Chris Kennan supported the fire company officials. He said he would send a letter to county EMS commissioner Bill Beale and the 911 dispatch center to restrict North East ambulances from leaving town for lower-priority calls.