CITY COMMITTEE BACKS MORE PARAMEDICS 50 MAY BE HIRED AS TEMPORARIES.Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer Faced with a severe shortage of paramedics, a city panel recommended Wednesday hiring 50 more temporary paramedics while a long-term solution is sought. The City Council Budget and Finance Committee urged the hiring as part of a $3.1 million plan to sign on a total of 150 temporary paramedics before July. The shortage of paramedics is so dire that they routinely work overtime, have complained of stress and often must be shifted from one area of the city to another. ``We have paramedics who are absolutely exhausted and no one wants to see someone at the 11th hour of their shift,'' said Councilman Mike Feuer, chairman of the committee. At the same time, the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Fire Commission is considering a separate five-year, $50 million plan to hire 100 paramedics a year to meet future needs. Capt. Ken Buzzell of United Firefighters of Los Angeles, however, noted some concerns about the five-year proposal. ``It seems a little ambitious and I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if they can put these people in place and whether the city will come up with the $50 million that will be needed,'' Buzzell said. Mayor Richard Riordan Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002. has proposed the immediate hiring of temporary paramedics. ``Paramedic par·a·med·ic n. A person who is trained to give emergency medical treatment or assist medical professionals. paramedic service is one of the critical services we provide, and we have to look at a long-range solution to dealing with the problems,'' Riordan said, even as aides have indicated they are concerned about the budget implications of the five-year plan Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. . Fire Commission President David Fleming said the intense hiring plan is needed. ``It can help us with some of our immediate problems, but it also gets us to what our top priority is today with emergency health services Emergency Health Services (also EHS) is a division of the Department of Health in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is responsible for the province's pre-hospital emergency health services, including 152 ground ambulances and their support facilities, two ,'' Fleming said. He said he will bring the plan to the full Fire Commission at its next meeting. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, supports expansion. ``It's hard to argue against the goal of having a paramedic ambulance in every fire station, but again it's a goal. ``While we are dealing with a short-term fix with the temporary paramedics, we need to look long range at how we provide emergency medical services An Emergency medical service (abbreviated to initialism "EMS" in many countries) is a service providing out-of-hospital acute care and transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient believes constitutes a medical emergency. ,'' she said. |
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