ROCKINGHAM — Officials from both Rockingham and Bellows Falls have discussed issues around the provision, cost, and delivery of emergency services.
At a Sept. 29 joint meeting of the Village Trustees and the Rockingham Selectboard, the two boards tabled a discussion on whether Rockingham and Bellows Falls should enter into a mutual aid agreement with Charlestown, N.H., which opted out of Southwestern New Hampshire District Fire Mutual Aid, based in Keene, N.H., and is using its own dispatcher.
At issue is the rise in costs that their opting out will cost surrounding towns.
Mutual Aid Chief Philip Tirrell said Charlestown responders have set up a mutual aid agreement with North Walpole, but Walpole, if they respond, will charge for services.
Bellows Falls Administrative Fire Chief Ron Lake was surprised to learn that former BF Fire Chief William Weston had put a hold on responding to calls from Charlestown. Concerns of liability were noted to be covered under the Vermont and New Hampshire “Good Samaritan” policy.
Chief Tirrell said Charlestown has 11 agreements of mutual aid with surrounding towns.
BF discusses eliminating EMS from fire department
At the Village Trustees' meeting Oct. 13, Village President Nancy McAuliffe and Trustee Sandy Martin introduced further discussion to remove emergency response calls from the Bellows Falls Fire Department, citing how a Michigan city, Port Huron, reduced emergency response calls.
Martin stated he would like to see the BFFD make these changes as they will be more cost effective. McAuliffe wondered why both the BFFD and ambulance service needed to respond to medical emergency calls, which would put the onus of deciding what medical response was required on Mutual Aid dispatchers.
It was noted by Deputy Chief Stephen Cenate that all firefighters are also EMT as well as firefighter certified.
Municipal Manager Willis D. Stearns II noted that emergency medical calls were dispatched through the Port Huron hospital who determined what kind of responders should be sent when a medical emergency call came in, and that Mutual Aid was not equipped to make that decision.
Golden Cross Ambulance is currently contracted to respond to Rockingham calls. Two vehicles are located just south of the village in Westminster, and a third can be dispatched from Claremont, where their central office is located.
If all the Golden Cross ambulances are in use at the time of a call, Mutual Aid calls on Walpole Rescue are toned to respond.
Cenate told the board this had occurred 12 times in the past year. In these cases, the first responders on scene are often the Bellows Falls EMTs.
Stearns noted that it would not be a lot a cheaper to do away with BFFD EMT response teams.
Nevertheless, McAuliffe asked Cenate to look into the procedure.
Cenate responded that the most recent American Heart Association guidelines encourage a team approach to dealing with a patient that results in a better outcome for the patient. He also reminded McAuliffe that the voters, when asked if they wanted to do away with BFFD medical response team, chose to keep it at the last village meeting in the spring.