This opinion piece was originally published in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette on August 2, 2022
The highest priority for any city official should be protecting the lives of the community’s citizens. Right now, Fort Wayne is facing a challenge that could cost lives.
The Three Rivers Ambulance Authority’s contractor, Paramedics Logistics, is not meeting the needs of Fort Wayne residents or those who live in Allen County. Patients suffering from strokes, heart attacks or other major trauma are not being cared for in the necessary amount of time. Last month, their response rate for Priority 1 runs remained dangerously below standard, with emergency responders arriving late over 30% over the time allotted. This issue has been neglected for too long.
When the fire chiefs from county agencies reached out to us, we swiftly started meeting with them to identify what the city needed to do to address the immediate problem. We reached out to the city, and Mayor Tom Henry’s response was, in part, “The city does not have a direct role or responsibility with providing a solution.” Henry appoints four of the nine board members, and two are his employees. Responsibility does not get more direct than that.
We are very concerned. Stories continue to reach us about Fort Wayne residents suffering serious medical emergencies waiting over half an hour to get transported to the hospital. As a city, we are not living up to our obligations to our residents, and we’re placing an undue burden on our neighbors as New Haven and county emergency response agencies have been called on to pick up the slack when TRAA does not have personnel available to pick up the call.
The community’s EMS system is at a crossroads that begs for leadership from our elected officials, not indifference. Thankfully, the TRAA board has just made the decision to part ways with their contractor. We applaud this bold decision. We encourage our City Council colleagues and the mayor to stand with the TRAA board as they take the necessary steps to fix this problem.
TRAA’s board has been scrambling to address problems resulting from the contractor’s failure to meet the community’s needs. In the short term, since the contractor is being removed, we await the board’s articulation of what resources are needed to stabilize the system and prepare for a transition to a new system.
The TRAA board is already engaged with a consultant to identify the restructuring framework to provide acceptable emergency services to Fort Wayne over the long term. Funds will be necessary to efficiently and safely make the transition, and we stand ready to support this necessary change.
Also, city leaders need to anticipate that any recommendation for a long-term solution will include compensation that is competitive with other professional opportunities available to emergency responders. Increases in pay, education incentives and other incentives need to be considered to ensure that adequate staff is on board to meet the challenge.
We need a new vision that ensures people in need of emergency assistance will receive fast and reliable care when they call 911. The most basic responsibility we have as a city is that when someone calls for help, we have trained personnel ready to respond. Shifting blame and making excuses is not good enough for Fort Wayne; we need to do better.
As members of your City Council, we are excited to embrace this opportunity to fix the EMS system and ultimately to save lives. This situation will not improve if it is neglected. Because these problems will not fix themselves, they will require our engagement and support.
Tom Didier, Tom Freistroffer and Russ Jehl serve on Fort Wayne’s City Council.
Click to learn more about how Tom Didier plans to improve Fort Wayne’s infrastructure
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