New York – In an interview airing tonight on Zev Brenner’s Talkline program, city council speaker and mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn addressed the shortcomings of the city’s current ambulance system and offered her suggestions for making greater usage of volunteer ambulance corps, including Hatzolah.
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Quinn’s remarks came one day after the speaker herself discovered just how difficult it can be to receive emergency medical assistance, after an aide to a city council member fainted during a press conference in Williamsburg, as previously reported on VIN News.
Despite the problems that have plagued the city’s 911 system Quinn, who met yesterday with both the deputy mayor and the fire commissioner, reported that the 911 system did not malfunction yesterday.
“The problem yesterday was the high volume of calls because of the heat wave,” explained Quinn, who clarified that while approximately 3,400 calls can be received on an average day, 4,000 calls were received on Monday alone.
Listen below to the full interview that will air tonight.
“Yesterday was also going to be a high volume day and they weren’t prepared for that,” said Quinn. “They didn’t have enough ambulances out on the street.”
Quinn outlined a three pronged approach to the problem in her meeting yesterday, which included running more ambulances during heat waves, expanding the ambulance fleet and creating standards for lower priority, non-life threatening calls.
“The highest level 911 calls, the goal is to get there in seven or eight minutes. They don’t have the same standard for the lower ones, though no one could think that 31 minutes is acceptable,” said Quinn.
Asked why there is no contingency plan in place to make use of volunteer ambulance groups like Hatzolah during expected high volume conditions, Quinn responded that she had discussed that issue with the deputy mayor and fire commissioner yesterday and that it is a move that could ultimately save taxpayers money, by reducing the need to purchase, outfit and staff more ambulances.
“These are individuals who really show up every time we need them and shame on us if we are not asking them enough,” said Quinn.
Quinn lavished praise on Hatzolah and its members, pointing to the 70,000 calls that are handled around the clock on an annual basis.
“Hatzolah got there within minutes…this would be remarkable any day. It is more remarkable because the city had not responded. And it is more remarkable because it was Tisha B’Av, they were in synagogue and they left immediately because, of course, the highest calling is always to save a life.”
Quinn expressed her personal thanks both to Hatzolah volunteer Joseph Levy and Mutty Klein as well as to her staffer Howard Pollack who placed the call to Hatzolah and joked that from this point on Hatzolah would be like her American Express card saying, “I don’t want to leave home without them. I want to have them everywhere I go.”
Will the city provide any funds or will all the burden be placed on the current donors? Will they indemnify the volunteers should something go wrong? Will the city provide the additional insurance if they expect Hatzolah to fill in?
There are many issues with this. In towns where there is no EMS service provided by the town, the town provides significant grants to the volunteer services to help them with operating costs.
This is one thing Hatzolah does NOT need!
They are burdened enough as is. The “honor” of being used by the city, Hatzolah does not need. Please Ms. Quinn, this is one favor hatzolah doesn’t want!
What’s going to happen on shabbas?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for this, what a Kiddush Ha’shem
as we say use it but don’t abuse it!, Quinn is upset ; Bill Thompson was endorse by the New York’s Bravest FD-EMS don’t you get it!
“Asked why there is no contingency plan in place to make use of volunteer ambulance groups like Hatzolah during expected high volume conditions, Quinn responded that she had discussed that issue with the deputy mayor and fire commissioner yesterday and that it is a move that could ultimately save taxpayers money, by reducing the need to purchase, outfit and staff more ambulances.”
CHUTZPAH! Exploit volunteers to save the city money?
This is the same Quinn that is opposed to MBP!
great , now what is going to happen on schabos with the extra load
Wow what a kidush Hashem
In other words there are volunteers that give away from themselves to save lives (which by the way saves the city a lot of money) and speaker Quinn says lets take advantage of them and use them as much as we can (not to mention that it will stretch Hatzolah thin and will compromise their ability to respond) Speaker Quinn says that it will save the city a lot of money but she didn’t say that it will cost Hatzolah a lot of money in other words putting the burden on the jewish community.
Now even if Quinn would offer Hatzolah money (let say a certain amount of $$ for each call 911 will transfer to Hatzolah) I wouldn’t like that because then Hatzolah will become a business and will not have the same quality as a jewish heart volunteer org.
So while Speaker Quinn recognizes the quality service that Hatzolah provides she should keep 911 and the city out of it.
Hatzalah having about 200 calls daily and to unload from the city’s close to 4000 calls daily. Will put an over load on hatzalah and not for the miyzva of “hamatzil nefesh achas mi’yisroel” but to save money for the city. This will cause our equipment and buses to brake down much faster and we will only have the expenses and the city only the benefits.
Uh no, please don’t bog down Hatzoloh. This is not their full time job. They do it to help the community and the community finances it.
Nice idea by Quinn. The city should use them more everywhere!
Nuhr dus hut ois gefehlt
Haztolah would quickly collapse if it were forced to start responding to all the calls that Quinn has in mind. No good deed goes unpunished.
There are many other volunteer ambulance corps throughout the city. I’m sure in many of the black communities there are people who can organize and can make their own volunteer ambulance. The problem then becomes how to make sure that egos don’t get in the way and no one group steps on the toes of the other.
Hatzolah exists as a volunteer organization to provide better emergency medical service to the Jewish community. While I imagine the members do not mind the occasional opportunity to help a non-Jewish person, that is not Hatzolah’s raison d’être, and I do not see how Hatzolah would benefit from NYC offloading excess calls to them. The Hatzolah volunteers typically have paying jobs in other fields, so it is not as though they are sitting around with nothing to do. If the Hatzolah members wanted to provide emergency medical service on a full-time basis, they would likely get paying jobs with an ambulance service, rather than serve as unpaid volunteers. I do not know why Ms. Quinn would even suggest offloading calls to Hatzolah or other volunteer organizations.
Offloading public school for private ones would save more.
this is so stupid!
why would hatzolah take on a workload from the city just because the city is underfunded??
doesn’t she realize that the members are volunteers?
why would they run around all day picking up the cities slack?
The woman is brilliant!!!! Offload the city’s responsibilities to a volunteer crew. Nice way to get the Hatzolah volunteers to quit.
Why not have unpaid Community Board Members replace the City Council to save a lot of money, Ms Quinn.
What utter foolishness to ask volunteers to take on more of the City’s work than they already do.
These 2 Hatzolah members made a massive Kiddish Hashem.
In regards to diverting 911 calls to Hatzolah, this is the last thing Hatzolah needs right now. They have a huge burden as is.
How about the city should put more buses on the road in extreme weather (their own buses or sub it out to private companies like Assist, Senior Care & Citi Wide, or Midwood)
And encourage other communities around the city to also open local volunteer corps and follow in Hatzolah’s path.
She wants to be Mayor?????
Where did she lose her brains? Does she not know the meaning of volunteer?
If anyone calls Hatzolah on Shabos, we will respond. It makes no difference if the person is Jewish or not.
The problem is that Ms. Quinn has no idea abou the logistics of Hatzolah.
As the wife of a Hatzolah volunteer, who pays 40% taxes, why should we give up more of our personal time serving the City, to save them money? This is absurd. I am already saving the City plenty of money by not sending my kids to Public School.
she trusts us enough to handle life and death cases. but we don’t have a clue about the mbp issue!!!??? hypocrite.
People … send your comments to Ms Quinn , not here.
I agree
While some have raised valid points about the overload on hatzala, I was not happy with the tone of many comments which is a chillul hashem.
We should trust that ways will be found to solve the problem, but let us keep making a kiddush hashem. Remember the case of the Hatzala Baltimore members who rescued a woman and children in San Francisco by telephone.
hatzolah members run out from their jobs and their sleep to respond to calls.
the city should get more ambulances and more emts and medics .
who will pay all of hatzolahs additional bills?
sorry to say but this is NOT a good idea.
I don’t think that her idea is so bad. There are some communities in NY where Hatzolo works as the primary 911 system. I.e. Kiryas Joel EMS corps. KJ EMS is covering as first responders for all 911 calls within the village boundaries. Jews and Gentiles alike. There are many benefits from this system, 1) it is partially funded by the government. 2) it has the ability to collect insurance for each transfer. Insurance / medicaid pay btw $1600 – $ 2000 for a local transfer. And yet, 3) volunteers are always available to assist. 4) they can afford the most updated ambulances and Life Saving equipment, with the assistance of community donations. 5) they can afford to maintain a payroll for full time / around the clock paramedics. 6) they have a system for Shabbus Goyim, who will do the job when it is not permitted by Halacha.
I see this system works, why not try to mimic it?
And this genius yenta is running for mayor! She would save the city much more if she didn’t.
I dont believe Quinn meant to offload the citys burden onto Hatzoloh members.
Maybe on crisis days like this heat wave or major snow storms or weather like Sandy those times Hatzoloh should take on a bit more of volunteer work…Lets NOT forget that Hatzoloh and its patients benefit a great deal from the city of NY..We get all the support from the NYPD NYFD and all governmant officials acknowldge Hatzolohs great work..So maybe when the city is in desperate need of more Volunteers we should offer a little assistance …It will only make a kiddish hashem…
We all understand that Hatzoloh memebers serve their own communities and dont need the extra burden but the kiddish hashem in those days will make Hatzoloh a stronger organization…
Whatever you think of Ms. Quinn regarding MBP, or her running for mayor, her idea here is clearly meant as supportive to the frum community.
Why not take the compliment ? I know I have.
Obviously, if she suggests something that Hatzoloh doesn’t want, or can’t handle, we will say thanks, but no thanks.
I have a feeling that she sees the value of Hatzoloh ! Also, she may need to payback EMS that supported the other guy, and she may have a good offer for Hatzoloh. Why be negative ? At least she is honest. I know I will vote for her.
This is not just about Hatzolah. There are other volunteer based ambulance organizations that would love to get calls from the 911 system. The city refuses, even though they are understaffed, probably because of union issues.
I don’t understand the media didn’t credit the hatzoloh not what I herd the radio nor online nor did TV mention the part that pollock called & that’s when hatzulah came
I was told a couple of years ago by a doctor that each time Hatzolah is used it costs $400! I don’t know if that is true or not. Hatzolah is not intended as a backup for overlogged city ambulances, and should not be used and abused in that manner. They are funded by donations which are hard-pressed to begin with and their staff is already overextended. Let the city do the job everybody’s taxes is paying them for and not divert the load to H.!