Waterbury, CT – Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has begun paving the way for the establishment of an official Hatzalah of Waterbury.
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A special act signed by Malloy will allow Hatzalah of Waterbury to receive a supplemental first responder license from the Department of Public Health, reports Rep-Am.com (http://bit.ly/1eJ7aog). The act is significant because the current law requires a municipality, in this case, Waterbury, to approve license applications for emergency medical service providers. Malloy has waived this requirement for Hatzalah. The only catch is that Hatzalah volunteers still may not transport people to the hospital or ride along in ambulances, which, for some, defeats the purpose of having a local Hatzalah.
Beginning in 2000, Waterbury’s historic Overlook and Hillside neighborhoods were settled by the Orthodox yeshiva movement, which took up residence on the old University of Connecticut campus. Hatzalah of Waterbury was founded shortly thereafter, and, despite not having a special state license, its trained volunteers consisting of doctors, nurses, EMTs, and paramedics have been assisting on medical calls for years.
In passing the act, Waterbury legislators said Hatzalah members are important to have on board because they can assist police, firefighters, and medical personnel by explaining Orthodox Jewish customs and religious laws, while also comforting community members in distress.
It’s great. But I don’t get why they couldn’t go through the municipality like a regular volunteer ambulance? Why need special permission from the governor?
Because the corrupt municipality threw out the application several times and pretended they never got and and did not process it. It is all about the ambulance lobby who dont want a free service operating so they will get more money as reimbursement.
The current local city charter allows for only one ems agency to operate. For legal reasons, all involved felt this was the way to go. The local Waterbury government were supportive of this action.
Enough already with the special accommodations for our orthodox community so that we’re comfortable it’s sickening we’ve become a beggar nation. For all those that say we deserve it as we are also tax payers let me educate you. You pay taxes to belong in club USA so that no ss sturm trooper snatches you up after cerfew, so that nobody bothers as you’re walking to shul on shabbos looking all Jewish. Not to have gov’t bend backwards to accommodate us. Do the arabs, italians, greeks, have their own hatzala everywhere they set up shop ?
Reply to #5 you are absolutely correct that hatzala is a chesed representing our roots but it singles us out as not only benevolent but also gives an impression that “Jewish lives matter more” as the EMS that is the standard of pre hospital care for 95% of every one else isn’t good enough for us yidden. Even if u say well so what when it comes to pekuach nefesh i dont care about what impression I’m giving well then don’t ask the akum to bend over backwards for u and be sure not to ask for state/city special grants or provisions for your uber ambulance care.