1. As one who relies on private ems I don’t know much about twp ems but I don’t think any amount of savings justifies downgrading the service in any way. If the service will be the same then it makes sense.but if its one more life at stake its a bad idea.

2. that savings has to be fairly applied across the board. That means it should not affect just one segment of the population.

3. Hershel, Nu????

4. The public doesn’t have any facts and figures,what are THEY voteing about???

5. You should clarify this survey. If it will save money. They are saying it will save money and how much? When in fact we are not sure it will save money.

6. I voted ‘makes no difference’ but I meant ‘I don’t know enough to have an opinion’ That option should be included in the poll as it probably includes the majority of those voting.

7. Did we all think about how much we the tax payers will have to pay out of pocket when the private companies don’t get paid enough from the insurance companies, or the private companies charge us for an ice pack, a bandage, etc..

8. they will charge you if they talk to you.. wait untill the fight starts that hatzolah is in there town. i already heard ppl involved talking….. just wait

9. PPI please realize that you are voting about something that does not effect us in anyway. Believe me we won’t save a penny on our taxes. We use hatzolah so we have good emts and people who care. If you vote to go private it basicly shows that we just don’t care about anyone out of our community and I don’t know about you but I hate that stigma that people have about our community.

10. A private outside auditor should be hired to research the issue and present the facts and figures to the Public . Only then can we form an opinion . Both the twp Commitee and the head of the EMS have vested interests and can not be trusted to give us the TRUE picture .

11. If the township privatizes EMS, Hatzoloh call volume will increase, which will effect both their response time and costs to run.

12. hatzalah should start billing ins companies when possible.

13. Why doesn’t Hatzolah put out a bid for the contract? more than half of the town are Hatzolahs users, and Hatzolah will answer anybody elses call’s anyway. Think about it! tons of EMT’s are dying to get into Hatzolah, we can do it!

14. Dear Wannabe, hatzolah can not just start billing non-jewish patients. its called descrimination. also hatzolah’s rigs are not state of nj certified to bill. this is a process a rig needs to go through in order to bill. but yes, Hatzolah’s call volume will indeed increase being that the old age community will be more comfortable with them than with a EMT who just gratuated & got a job at quality.

15. With the townships paid EMS service we know exactly who is going to show up to come help us out in a time of need. If you hire a private company who hires anyone off the street to come to an accident or life threatening situation and they are supposed to save you…..YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! Not for nothing I don’t want any un-qualified people dealing with me…..

16. @THE CORRECTINATOR

    Demographic-wise, half the town may be Hatzolah users, however the township EMS handles 6000-7000calls on average a year, which Hatzolah would have a lot of trouble picking up, and a private company could not pick up. There is a reason the township spends money on EMS, and a reason that every other surrounding town spends money on EMS. Private companies can’t handle the call volume, response times increase, and more money ends up being spent out of taxpayers pockets.

17. emt’s in private companies like monoc and quality, are paid low wages, $10-$13 an hour, mostly because most of their “jobs” involve simple transports of patiens from hospital, to nursing home. EMT’s in private services have very very little experience with emergency calls. I speak as an EMT who used to work for monoc. We did around 6-10 calls per 12 hour shift. 99% of them were transports. I estimate we got 1-2 emergency calls per week. In contrast, the EMT’s who work for Lakewood are highly paid, highly experienced, some are even paramedics who were there since the pay is better than what monoc pays for medics. They work high volume and are the best emt’s suited for the job.

18. If they do privatize it will definately lead to an increase of calls, kiuddushim shem hashem and maybe after they realize that they will contribute to Hatzolah to save them from their many growing debts. Don’t wait till you need Hatzolah to take out your checkbook, I’m saying this from expereince. They are in need! We’re you a tomeich hatzolah this year yet.

19. if a private company takes over then they will be billing people who cant pay for it which will lead to many people going into cazy debt and then losing theyr homes cuz of theyr debt and we will be left with a bunch of home less people which will lead to a rise in crime…i also spoke to members of the first aid squad who told me that the town will be saving about $200,000 a year and nothing near theyr estimate of $800,000 a year

20. Only thing that will change with a private company is how much more money everyone pays when they need an ambulance, you think a private compnay will settle for an ambulance going to someones house just to be picked up off the floor and not charge them NO. They will charge for everything they can, that is their business, not saving lives What about at a car accident, if someone is trapped in the vehicle, I know Lakewood EMS can get them out of their vehicles becauase of the training they have and the equipment. I dont know of any private compnay who have that training and equipment. If they wanted to saves lives they wouldnt have started a transport company. The real poll that should be on here is: Do You think There is Corruption in Lakewood? I want to know the response on that.
    I feel real sorry if we lose the EMS to a private service for anybody who needs medical attention.

21. The reason they think they can get away with it is because the majority of town uses hatzoloh and not twp ems.so they assume we won’t care. We as a members of the orthodox community should stand up and show the members of other communities such as the senior community that while we might have different opinions on things like growth and development in town. When it comes to health and safety we are all one town and we will stand up and fight for the safety of our neighbors even though it might not affect us personaly. There is no justification to lowering the level of emergency care even to save millions of dollars. The seniors pay as much taxes as us and like us get almost nothing can they at least have a qualified ems show up if they have a life threatening emergency? I would be curious to know if other posters agree with me

22. I couldnt have said it any better than #21. how would we like it if the township said that Hatzolah cant run anymore and its ganna be privatized. (i know they cant do that im just giving an example) the vote would be 100 to 0 not to privatize. This is almost the same for the seniors. They deserve the quality they get from the ems department.

23. hold on! there lakewood ems(highly treined emt’s) & lakewood fistaid (volenteeirs ) are they allso highly paided & highly treined ? going on 100’s of calls a week?or are they as treined like the privates?

24. To : dovid says “hold on! there lakewood ems(highly treined emt’s) & lakewood fistaid (volenteeirs ) are they allso highly paided & highly treined ? going on 100’s of calls a week?or are they as treined like the privates?
    ”
    They work side by side and train with the Paqid EMS to ensure they keep up their skills to a higher sandard.

25. To #21 BTW Lakewood township EMS does about 6000 call a year. Hatzolah does roughly 5000 or slightly more depends how many little check out the situation or no transport you count.
    How is that the majority of the town ???
    I think you should gather up some TRUE facts before you go and lead the public in the wrong way !!!!

26. This is gonna be a mess, the township committee is absolutely nuts for trying this one. I cant wait to see who shows up in the private ambulances to help. Between the shoddy service and the long wait times, lawsuit here we come….. Unbelievable. Look somewhere else to save money. None of the private companies will compare to the knowledge, training or expertise that the Lakewood EMS has. Please think this one over.

27. # 21. AGREED

28. #21 and all your talmidim: you are obviously a reasonable person and your logic is impeccable. EXCEPT that your premise is false: you said “There is no justification to lowering the level of emergency care even to save millions of dollars”. Where did you get that? All the statements from the Mayor and Committemen said they would only accept a private bid to match or exceed the services of EMS. Recognize that average salaries of EMS are double that of equal or superior level people in private companies. Civic pride says keep em, our taxes say do what you must to serve the taxpayer. At least the committee is showing some courage to look at this. Knee-jerk rejections of fiscally responsible action due to false premises serve no one and only serve to frighten the seniors, who deserve better from all of us.

29. #28 you would be correct if they would get the same level of care. I am not part of the ems department but i do know how these private companys are. most of the emts are new and not trained well. I am an emt and belive me the only way you learn is on the job that is just a fact. I have a friend who took the emt course which only gives you about 10 hours of some type of experiance in an ambulance and another 10 hours in a hospital and most of that you do nothing. He was hired by gem ambulance and was put as a 3rd guy on a ambulance for 2 shifts. Aftrer that he was riding with a partner. thats crazy to do for 911 emergencys. People are always changing jobs in the private sector and most dont have 10 -20 years of experiance. In this job you can be on a call that to the avrg emt the patiant will look fine and with out experinace things could go very wrong. People do suddenly crash and die in an ambulance. Half of the ems department are paramedics and have many years of experiance. There is no way that any emts form a private company would work as an emt because they would make more money working as a medic. That right there is proof that we would loose some of the quality of care. Another thing is when you have medics aboard they many times know wheteher or not they will need medics to come or not. That right there can either save a person or an unneccesery $1700 bill from monoc. One more thing when the private companys come to do a stand by for a fire or for a police raid which the ems department does not, do you think they going to keep 3 rigs for anywhere from one hour to 6 hours and not bill the township for that?

30. correction- ” One more thing when the private companys come to do a stand by for a fire or for a police raid which the ems department does NOW (NOT WAS WRONG), do you think they going to keep 3 rigs for anywhere from one hour to 6 hours and not bill the township for that?

31. Allright, hopefully the Township Committee will listen to someone who has first hand knowledge of the level of care that Lakewood EMS provides to Lakewood residents on a consistent basis. There isn’t a private company in the state that can provide the level of care that Lakewood EMS can provide. The trained members of this organization are second to none and the residents of Lakewood are privileged to have this service available to them. Many of the surrounding towns that currently have an EMS department operating out of the PD modeled their service/department after Lakewood EMS. Do you think that says something about this department and it’s members? I do. The dedication shown by the members of this department is rarely seen in an organization in any field. All of us try to save money for our constituents, especially in the times we currently live in. To save 200K at the expense of what this organization provides is not the way to go. Just so you all know, I do not live in Lakewood nor do I have any type of financial stake in whether Lakewood EMS survives or not. I am just someone who knows what is best for this community and it is not privatization of this vital service.
    Finally, I would like any member of any Committe who is going to be responsible for making this decision to ask themselves a question; Are any of your loved ones lives, a son, a daughter, a parent or a spouse worth 200K? That should clear up this debate and answer the question for you. I know what my answer is……………….

Comments are closed.