Council Panel Wants 6 More Ambulances

The City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee called Wednesday for spending $1.5 million to add six paramedic-staffed ambulances to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s force.

Councilman Michael Woo cited the “crisis” in providing medical service in the metropolitan, South-Central and East Valley areas. Woo, the committee chairman, proposed buying the ambulances with funds already allocated to lower emergency response times.

The action will go before the full council for consideration possibly as early as next week.

In testimony Wednesday, Fire Chief Donald O. Manning said buying the ambulances would create a “major problem” because the Fire Department does not have enough certified paramedics, either now or in training, to staff them.

He argued, instead, for support of a proposal offered by the Fire Department last month. That plan calls for regular firefighters, trained as emergency medical technicians, to handle low-level medical calls in busy areas, leaving paramedics to respond to serious emergencies. Under the proposal, the number of paramedic ambulances would be cut back.

Both Woo and fellow committee member Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores characterized their decision to buy ambulances as a step toward solving an immediate emergency, not a final solution.

In another action, aimed at a longer-term solution, both council members supported a Fire Commission recommendation to hire Dr. Jeff Clawson, medical director of the Salt Lake City Fire Department, to assist in introducing his medical protocols in Los Angeles.

The Clawson protocols, a way to determine the seriousness of calls for medical assistance, are used in scores of cities across the country. They permit dispatchers to send the proper level of assistance on emergencies.

The protocols are seen as the heart of any new emergency medical system that may be adopted in Los Angeles.

Another key issue is whether low-level medical emergency calls should be handled by firefighter-medical technicians on fire engines, as proposed by a city administrative office audit team, or by firefighter-technicians in ambulances, as favored by Manning.

Woo’s three-member committee will consider that, and nearly a score of other Fire Commission proposals concerning the emergency response issue, at a later meeting.