PANAMA CITY, FL—City of Panama City officials say its fire department has, and will continue its duty to demonstrate commitments linked to county emergency medical services.
In an interview Wednesday, Assistant City Manager Jared Jones emphatically stated that nothing has changed.
"The Panama City Fire Department has never stopped running EMS calls," he said. "When we were looking at the type of and number of calls we were running, we decided to go back to the original agreement and commitment to support county EMS service, which includes the eight most critical type of calls."
"It is the city's priority to maintain the highest readiness for our firefighting capability and the best EMS support for out citizens," he added.
According to past reports and city officials, back in 2016, the Panama City Fire Department began responding to the most critical calls for the county's EMS, including incidents like cardiac arrest or providing basic life support until medics arrive.
However, in the summer of last year, discussions were had regarding the suspension of those services in the case of less critical events, such as a slip-and-fall.
City Manager Mark McQueen then stated the overwhelming majority — 64% in 2018 and the first half of last year — the fire department had responded to were EMS-related.
Although there was discussion, as well as a communication to The News Herald from the fire chief explicitly stating McQueen had directed him to suspend his department EMS services, no actual policy change took place.
And, as Baird's email to his department instructed at that time, firefighters should wait on a "formal announcement ... as to the date of the suspension."
"In the meantime," he wrote, "continue delivering the best service you can."
According to Jones, that time never ceased, and services continue as the original agreement laid out.
"Over time, we begin to live outside of that agreement, and I think, knowingly so," Jones said, listing concerns about readiness, staff fatigue and cost of overtime that resulted. The fire department, now, continues on with the top critical calls, as was originally agreed upon.
"We provide basic life services; EMS provides basic life services and advanced life support. We're providing that basic life support service while EMS is en route," he said. "It's an additional life saving measure."
"We went back to that agreement," he later added, "and said, 'you know what, it's time to live within these guidelines again.'"
Jared also noted the city's response times and success rates continue to maintain satisfactory levels.
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