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The city should take steps to sever EMS from the FDNY and create a new Department of Emergency Medical Services. That was the message conveyed by the leaders of two unions representing EMS workers and officers at a City Council hearing last week.
"For decades EMS has operated without equal resources, respect or autonomy inside a structure that was never designed for modern emergency medicine. We've been treated as an appendage, not a core public health service and that neglect doesn’t just hurt EMTs and paramedics; it hurts the very citizens we serve,” testified Anthony Almojera, a lieutenant paramedic and the vice president of the EMS officers union. “Creating an independent EMS agency would finally align the system with what it truly is; a frontline healthcare service, not a fire suppression unit.”
The hearing was called to debate two Council bills seeking to address the low pay of EMS workers and paraprofessionals, whose starting salary can be as low as $40,000 and $31,787 respectively. A bill sponsored by Council Member Justin Brannan would sever EMS from its two-decade home in the FDNY and establish an independent agency for EMS only.
Almojera has previously called for EMS to stand on its own and EMS officials from elsewhere in the country testified at last week’s hearing about their successful third-service model, where EMS is separate from fire and police response.
But the FDNY is staunchly opposed to severing EMS for the department’s organizational structure, said outgoing department Commissioner Robert Tucker, who called the effort a “misguided suggestion that would not solve the crisis of EMS.”
Tucker asked the Council to reject the legislation. He argued that even under a new agency EMS would still have to bargain with the Office of Labor Relations, that it would come at enormous cost for the city, and that separation would endanger the link between EMS workers and firefighters.
“That close relationship is critical not just to members of the public but to EMTs, paramedics and firefighters themselves,” he said.
‘Second class employees’
Oren Barzilay, president of the union representing EMTs and paramedics, said that creating a third service wouldn’t be that difficult because EMS workers already rely on a separate dispatch system and have their own station houses. Barzilay hopes that an independent service would give EMS workers a bigger spotlight and, as a result, the higher pay and improved working conditions that Barzilay has been demanding for years.
“We are second-class employees in the FDNY," Barzilay said. “We are treated disrespectfully."
The union leader appeared alongside Sharnice Johnson, an EMT making just over $41,000 a year before overtime, according to city payroll records, who Barzilay said was homeless. She’s one of many EMS workers, a tearful Barzilay said, without a permanent place to live.
“There is no safety, no protection in the FDNY,” he said.
B-HEARD shift
The most recent illustration of the disrespect afforded EMS, Barzilay said, was the city’s decision to shift the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) away from the FDNY.
“The city championed the B-HEARD program but because they can't staff EMS they're cancelling us,” he said at the hearing.
The program that diverts certain 911 calls away from police officers will now be administered by NYC Health + Hospitals, Mayor Eric Adams announced the day after the hearing. Adams said in a statement that the new model for B-HEARD would allow EMTs “to focus further on other emergency response units” as part of the city’s goal to reduce ambulance response times and improve service.
“From day one, our administration’s goal has been to keep New Yorkers safe and to help those struggling with severe mental illness; doing this means we must provide treatment and support to those in crises in the most efficient and compassionate way possible,” he said. “We are building a culture of compassion in the name of public safety, public health, and the public interest, and we are proud to be delivering just that.”
But Henry Garrido, the president of District Council 37, the parent union of both EMS locals, said the change was “shortsighted and unnecessarily rushed.”
“The plan privatizes the ambulance system with hospital contractors instead of simply backfilling the vacant positions perforating our EMS ranks,” he said in a statement. “Any proposed changes to the B-Heard program should be at the discretion of the incoming Mayor and Fire Commissioner.”
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JTKerr
I noted the FDNY - EMS proposal made recently to the City Council with great interest. As the former Executive Director of NYCEMS when it was a part of the Health and Hospitals Corporation in the 1980s, I've given a lot of thought to making EMS a separate independent Mayoral agency and I agree completely with the approach of either separating the two or paying EMS workers at parity with firefighters. Unfortunately, parity will only solve one of several problems with FDNY EMS.
Along with parity a cultural shift would be required. In NYC medical emergencies outnumber fires by more than five to one each year. The new Fire Commissioner would have to accept that Emergency Medical Services is a core mission, if not the primary mission of the Fire Department. The Commissioner would have to ensure that like minded individuals are placed in key positions in the Department. This cultural shift would manifest in many ways too detailed to go into here. If there is no commitment to this change in FDNY culture, EMS should be made an independent mayoral agency with appropriate resources pay scale and infrastructure to safeguard the lives of all new Yorkers.
Jim Kerr
Monday, December 15, 2025 Report this