Divisions

To the editor:

Will FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker accomplish what  previous commissioners have not?  Specifically, will he integrate both of FDNY "first responder" services, its certified emergency medical personnel and its firefighters? (“FDNY seeking to 'integrate' firefighting and EMS corps,” The Chief, May 16)  

The title of the first chapter of the FDNY’s Strategic Plan 2025, "Integrate Fire and EMS Operations," is reminiscent of several older reports and decade-old words from another commissioner.

 In 2015, two decades after the city's emergency medical services were removed from the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp. and dropped into the FDNY as a firehouse saving move, the Citizens Budget Commission issued a report stating in part, "FDNY leadership has identified integration of fire and EMS services as a long-run goal and has cautiously begun this process." In other words, integration of the FDNY's two "first responder" services, EMS and firefighters hadn't happened in the previous 20 years!

Citing former Commissioner Daniel Nigro, the report continued: "among the changes under discussion are CFRD [Certified First Responder Defibrillation] training for ladder companies and EMT training for engine companies.” 

Those two measures — CFRD training for ladder truck personnel, and EMT training for firefighters — aimed at reducing the time it takes for medically trained personnel to reach New Yorkers, have yet to happen. But at the same time hundreds of EMS personnel who transfer to engine companies as firefighters are not required to keep up their EMT or paramedic certifications.  

What's apparent in all FDNY plans is that its EMS is not the obstacle.

Helen Northmore