More EMS Information

The Fire Chief has disclosed that 12 paramedics were hired in February, 2015.  The plan is to have 32 paramedics on staff by October 1, 2015 to assume responsibility for all EMS calls within the city of Georgetown and Emergency Services District 8.  It was also disclosed that the city will transition its fire engines to be advanced life support vehicles.

Keep in mind that no one within the city staff or Council talks about how much this is going to cost the Georgetown and EMS District 8 taxpayers. A strict accounting of these new costs must be demanded. An incomplete list of new costs follows:

1.  Medical Director on city staff
2.  Training and certification of most fire fighters to be paramedics
3.  Pay differential for paramedics over fire fighters
4.  4 new fully equipped ambulances and maintenance thereof
5.  Equipping fire engines to be advanced life support vehicles
6.  Additional life cycle costs of pension and health care for the new and higher paid paramedics and management required for EMS
7.  Replacement costs of ambulances every "X" years
8.  Additional staff/systems to operate medical transport billing system
9.  Additional staff also requires additional space and personnel and payroll services
10. Additional fire fighter/paramedic staff due to EMS

Remember also, that county taxes will not decrease as a result of the county no longer providing EMS.  The residents of the city and EMS District 8 will continue to pay taxes to support the county EMS which will be deployed to under-served parts of the county.  In fact, the county taxpayer supported EMS budget may have to increase to compensate for the loss of transport revenue from insurance companies for transports in Georgetown and EMS District 8.

Make your city fully account for the EMS costs!