Wednesday, June 27, 2001

A few citizens have expressed sincere concern to me because the Fayette County Board of Commissioners did not fund seven additional firefighters/emergency medical technicians in the county's 2002 fiscal year budget. I was able to alleviate their concern when I shared the facts with them. I hope this letter will do the same for those citizens who have that concern but have not contacted us. Inaccurate letters to the editor, incomplete newspaper articles and rumors "at the water cooler" serve only to distort the real story.

The issue for those who expressed concern to me seems to be that our EMS response times are increasing to unacceptable levels and the board turned down the budget request which would solve the problem. It just isn't so. The entire picture has never been accurately reported.

Two sets of numbers were discussed in reference to EMS response but only one has been discussed in the public, i.e., ambulance response time. The time it took for an ambulance to arrive on the scene in 1999 and 2000 was up from 6 minutes 21 seconds to 8 minutes 22 seconds. This certainly is an undesirable trend.

However, unreported is the fact that in 2001 to date (January through May), the trend has significantly reversed to 7 minutes 17 seconds. So the data, while not great, is in fact improving, and we will continue to monitor it.

The more significant data reported to the board but not clearly understood elsewhere is the average time it takes to get qualified emergency medical technicians or paramedics to the scene. These numbers for 1999, 2000, and 2001 to date are, respectively, 5 minutes 5 seconds, 5 minutes 32 seconds, and 5 minutes 39 seconds.

Some citizens do not know that all of Fayette County's firefighters are also skilled, qualified emergency medical technicians. Therefore, whatever unit is first to arrive at a scene, be it a fire truck, staff vehicle, or an ambulance, is prepared to initiate lifesaving procedures.

Each vehicle has the same advanced life support equipment on board as does an ambulance, i.e., defibrillators, medications, airway equipment, IV fluids, etc. The response time of the first responding unit is gradually increasing, but is still remarkable when one considers the increased traffic with which our firefighter/EMTs must contend. This also will be monitored closely.

The seven firefighters/EMTs that were not approved in this budget were requested to partially man a reserve unit which would respond to any or all situations as necessary, to replace others in firehouses who might be sick or on emergency leave, to provide support in major incidents when required, and to fill in for personnel who would otherwise be working overtime. It was never expected that those "reserve" personnel would significantly improve response times since they are not intended to be first responders.

The board has significantly increased firefighters/EMTs over the last several years and anticipates increases in future years. We are simply trying to spend every dollar as effectively as possible.

Since public safety is our most important priority, we have also agreed to review the data at midyear to make any adjustments which might be required by changing variables. The board's commitment to public safety is further demonstrated by the fact that our public safety budget was increased from $20,264,521 in 2001 to $22,395,532 in the 2002 fiscal year budget, an increase of 10.5 percent.

I hope this information will reassure our citizens that Fayette County has and will continue to have the very best Department of Fire and Emergency Services possible. If you have questions, please contact me by phone at 770-460-5730, extension 5101, by e-mail at gdunn@admin.co.fayette.ga.us, or by fax at 770-719-5501.

Greg Dunn, Chairman

Fayette County Board of Commissioners

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