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L.A. County Firefighters Ass'n Prez Blasts Long Beach Rollout Of Paramedic System Change, Sends This Email To Incoming Electeds, City Mgr & LB Fire Chief


[Editor's note: As separately reported by LBREPORT.com, as of 8:00 a.m. today (July 10), Long Beach residents and visitors are test subjects for a Long Beach City Hall budget-spurred, Mayor/management sought, Council-approved test of a paramedic staffing change that management says will save money and improve patient care and the LB Firefighters Ass'n has said will worsen patient care and create operational problems. The Long Beach system is less costly and would put a firefighter trained in paramedic procedures on every fire engine to replace the current standalone two-paramedic teams who respond on serious medical emergencies. The test was approved by the non-elected Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Commission, allowing LB to become the only city in L.A. and Orange County to date to try this new system for up to two years. The Commission's approval came over the objections of the LB Firefighters Ass'n and the L.A. County Firefighters Ass'n. Below is the text of a letter, emailed this morning (July 10) by Dave Gillotte, President of the L.A. County Firefighters Ass'n IAFF Local 1014 to LB electeds Robert Garcia, Al Austin, Lena Gonzalez, Patrick O'Donnell, Suzie Price, Rex Richardson plus LB City Manager West and LB Fire Chief DuRee.]

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[Text: LA County Firefighters President's July 10 email to LB City Hall officials]

This morning I write to you with all of those hats on, and with the experience of 27 years in the Fire Service, and as an active Duty Fire Captain, with 12 years as a Paramedic, 10 Years as an Engineer and the last 5 years as a Fire Captain working some of the busiest spots LA County has to offer.

I bring to your attention formally an issue of Public Safety, Health and Safety of my members and the members of Long Beach, Orange County and LA City Fire Agencies as well, that also serves to harm service levels and expose all agencies to extreme litigation liability that could result in large monetary payouts for calls gone bad. This issue also serves to be a catalyst to put my members and the members of the other agencies at risk for their EMT and EMT - P licenses and careers should anything go wrong in the delivery of service.

I am talking about the plan to start operating the one and one Paramedic / EMT first responder units in Long Beach as of start of shift this morning 7/10/14, under the embrace and authority of Los Angeles County DHS trial.

I am not writing with political or systemic opposition to the trial and program today, and although Labor and the actual first responders are adverse to this program and have clearly indicated opposition to this program and we will continue to battle on behalf of the citizens to oppose the model, I write to you to officially inform you of a short term issue that is inexplicable and unconscionable in the actual opening and beginning of service with the new model.

I received notice last night that the rigs would be placed in service today, and I called our Fire Chief to speak with him about this issue. It turns out not only was our Fire Chief not informed with any level of detail, but also No First Responders from LA County have received any notification of the transition; no training, no education, no drill on any aspect of how this model will work, interface with or function either literally or legally with regard to the vast array of policies and procedures that we function under on calls.

This is not something that our responders from any agency should be trying to figure out in the heat of battle. I have seen this first hand in my years of service, and I can tell you in a critical situation where life or death is in the balance, that is not the time to be trying to figure out policy or protocol. Clearly you understand this.

Furthermore, I have represented members whose careers are threatened and exposure to Departments has resulted in very large and significant multi-million dollar settlements or awards through the courts for good calls gone bad, and policy and procedure has always been the cornerstone of the cases. One of these settlements would negate any “cost savings” of this program for years.

Operationally, having two separate Paramedic Unit models with regard to so many policies and procedures such as Multi-Victim Incidents, Fires, STEMI calls, Critical Cardiac and Respiratory Calls and of course any Critical Pediatric call are all in a state of unknown policy purgatory this morning as a result of NO TRAINING, NO NOTICE, NO EDUCATION, NO ITERAGENCY DRILLING on any aspect of how this is to work between the agencies.

This affects not only policies and procedures, but scene control and ICS Roles and Responsibilities on not only Fires, but most importantly on EMS calls where Long Beach Fire and the bordering Jurisdictional Fire Agencies, specifically Los Angeles County Fire Fighters and Paramedics for my membership operate.

This is completely unacceptable and puts everyone in harm's way this morning. I will be communicating with my members later this afternoon who are all wondering how it will all work and have yet to see any answers other than just be careful, treat our patients as best we can, and just use your judgment etc. Again, this is unacceptable.

Chief Duree and DHS should be held accountable for this grave lapse in preparation and gross misconduct and disservice to the citizens we serve and the tax-payers who fund our agencies for what amounts to amateur and non-professional roll out of a program that affects lives and operations of the members who operate as first responders day in and day out.

The solution to fix this problem, politics and adverse positions on the program aside, and from a Public and Responder Safety and Liability point of view, is to simply temporarily stop the approval of the trial this morning, hold on the opening of the rigs, and take a step backwards and complete the project by fully training the agencies on the interface in all aspects of literally and legally how we are to operate. All of the policies and procedures that we use to assess, treat, and transport patients properly needs to be explained and training needs to occur prior to start of service.

I will follow this up on our letterhead and I have put calls into Mayor Garcia [ed. note: voting Councilmember now, becomes non-voting Mayor July 15] and I will follow with all council members today, but I wanted you all to be officially notified ASAP with this serious situation, and allow you to do the right thing to back it up a bit, and do it right. Do this not only to protect the citizens you serve, but also the responders' careers and the Cities and County exposure to liability and payout for things that can go wrong as a result of NO TRAINING, NO NOTICE, NO EDUCATION, AND NO DRILL on the new model with regard to operational concerns.

I implore you to step up and stop the implementation by order of the Mayor and Council, even in an administrative capacity, and order the City Manager and Fire Chief to do their jobs correctly, and notice the border agencies of LA County, Orange County and LA City and allow proper preparation for the first responders to understand how this will all work. Additionally DHS should respond in kind to prohibit this premature start of this program without demanding the same. I recommend a temporary halt to implementation of no less than 30 days to accomplish the training.

You have been noticed and I will follow up, but I am requesting a response in writing electronically and hard copy to follow from the responsible parties ASAP. I will keep this in the privacy of our conversations and out of the public eye for the time being, but absent serious action to our satisfaction to simply be operationally sound on roll-out I will reserve our rights to use any and all actions to shed light and stop this lapse in administrative judgment from the authoritative persons in charge of this project.

I have copied appropriate leaders of the County of Los Angeles and DHS and the Federation of Labor on this send and issue. Let us take care of this privately and swiftly and save everyone time and energy and ultimately protect our Cities and County...

I look forward to your swift action and appropriate reset on this item for all concerned.

Sincerely,

Dave Gillotte
President
Los Angeles County Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 1014



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