EMS Union Upset About Proposed Changes

Correct - but if they do EMD correctly (and they claim to be so trained, although I've seen little evidence of it) - they will know they are dealing with a stroke and send a transport ambulance either with, or following, a chase car.

I don't like the cuts either, but right now, they don't seem to be able to attract sufficient paramedics, to be honest, they just don't exist. Unlike police and fire in the Urban area, EMS personnel are expected to come to the job already trained, as a rule. (LFR trained some paramedics, but since they were first and foremost firefighters, they never worked EMS as a regular shift, and they stayed with fire when the split occurred - so it was essentially a waste of money.) The current EMT-Bs work such strange schedules that they can't feasibly attend paramedic classes, even if they were readily available in this area, which they aren't. Paramedics from other services outside the county aren't going to be attracted to Louisville, the salary increase isn't that much, and like most Louisville agencies, there is no real desire to attract "laterals" - people that have gained experience in other agency. (They claim to pay for experience, but there are so many exceptions that it is virtually impossible for anyone to qualify for the experience pay - and I doubt, to be honest, that Richmond even realizes it - I think he's being sabotaged from people inside EMS that resent being taken out of LFR.)

Have you all even read the fire report - I have, all 170 plus pages. It's pretty obvious that they had no loyalty to Abramson, quite a bit of it is extremely critical of his actions, in the past as well as recently. But amazingly, the media is focusing completely on the proposed firehouse closures - and by the way, both of those buildings 1) would have been declared unihabitable if not condemned had they not been government buildings and 2) can't be expanded without tearing down adjacent buildings and literally totally rebuilding the structure - they aren't big enough for modern apparatus. They are in such shape because LFR command chose to spend the money on new apparatus rather than capital improvements - that's the choice of the Chief and his staff - they would regularly forgo buildings in favor of equipment - which means that we have a top of the line fire fleet, much "younger" than cities of comparable size - but firehouses that should have been foreclosed a long time ago. LFR loves to blame the Mayor, but never looks at their own chief.