11-23-2018, 02:15 PM
Emergency services in general are staffed with the expectation that most of their work day is unplanned. If we had a time machine to look forward and predict how many staff might be needed on a given day, then staffing could be adjusted accordingly. Unfortunately, emergency services can't operate the same way as retail store trying to adjust for Black Friday sales.
The reason that a large fire truck shows up for a small call is in case the large truck is needed at a call immediately afterwards. For the same reason, whenever the fire truck is taken for a test drive or to fuel up, the whole crew comes along just in case.
I'm not sure that merging EMS and Fire Services together would save much money as the two work forces would have to be kept in their separate streams in terms of training, equipment and availability, not to mention funding sources. My guess is the a lot of EMS funding is tied to provincial funding while fire funding is likely more tied to municipal funding. It wouldn't do to have fire services personnel tied up waiting to offload a patient at the hospital when a call goes out for a fire or accident clean-up.
The reason that a large fire truck shows up for a small call is in case the large truck is needed at a call immediately afterwards. For the same reason, whenever the fire truck is taken for a test drive or to fuel up, the whole crew comes along just in case.
I'm not sure that merging EMS and Fire Services together would save much money as the two work forces would have to be kept in their separate streams in terms of training, equipment and availability, not to mention funding sources. My guess is the a lot of EMS funding is tied to provincial funding while fire funding is likely more tied to municipal funding. It wouldn't do to have fire services personnel tied up waiting to offload a patient at the hospital when a call goes out for a fire or accident clean-up.