Welcome to the FDNY EMS Website. Home of the New York City Fire Department's Emergency Medical Service. See what life is like for the members of the New York City Fire Department's Emergency Medical Service.
FDNY EMS.
(PROUD TO BE THE THUMB IN FDNY'S EYE SINCE 1996)

IF YOU HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST RANTS AND
CARTOONS.  

Welcome to The FDNY EMS Website. On this site you will read about how The New York City Fire Department took over
and wrecked the New York City Emergency Medical Service.

This website talks about current problems at FDNY EMS, but you will be able to see that most of the problems that FDNY
EMS EMT's and Paramedics are dealing with are not unique solely to FDNY EMS. Other EMS providers are facing the
same, similar, or worse problems across the nation and the globe. These are the types of problems that if not corrected
will place the public in jeopardy. EMS is the only public safety agency that acts as a safety net for the nations poor and
downtrodden. We don't care who you are, where you are from, or if you are black, white, or purple the members of EMS
are there to help you when you need us.

Established in 1970, NYC EMS was chartered by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) to provide
comprehensive, state of the art pre-hospital care to the sick and injured citizens of NYC. With time and advances in
pre-hospital care NYC EMS grew to meet the task of serving New York City's diverse population of over 8 million people.
Over 2,500 very dedicated men and women, consisting of Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, supervisory
personnel, and support and technical staff effectively patrolled the streets and respond to over 3,000 calls for
assistance daily. Each year, NYC*EMS responded to over 1.3 million 911 calls for help making NYC*EMS the largest,
and busiest 911 municipal system in the nation. NYC EMS did not stop at just providing 911 municipal EMS services in
NYC; it also went on to provide the surrounding municipalities with help in times of need.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani never liked NYC EMS and when the city was having budget problems he wanted a way
to bring new funding into FDNY so there would be no cuts to the Fire Department. He felt a forced merger of EMS into
FDNY would be the way to solve a lot of FDNY's problems. Former Mayor Giuliani decided that he could use EMS as a
money maker in order to save Firefighter jobs. FDNY was also hoping that EMS (which has a large number of women
and minorities) would solve FDNY's racial problem (The New York City Fire Department was about 94% white male at the
time, and the Federal Government was looking into why it was that way.) One other factor that led to the takeover was a
FDNY productivity issue (Too much down time for the Firefighters)

The first step the Mayor and Fire Commissioner took was to start the CFR (Certified First Responder) program at FDNY.
NYC gave the Firefighters about $1,800 dollars a year to go to non transport, high priority EMS runs using their Fire
trucks. This of course increased the Firefighters workload by a factor of six making them very unhappy people. After
several minor setbacks with his merger plan former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (in order to finally force a merger of NYC
EMS and FDNY) cut off 350 million dollars in city funding to the HHC. This action financially starved the hospital network
that ran NYC EMS and served the city's poor and made it very easy to transfer EMS to FDNY.

As the takeover got underway The New York City Fire Department promised at several City Council hearings to cut EMS
response times to below 6 minutes, build 60 new EMS stations across the City, and make these new FDNY EMS stations
community care centers that would serve the health needs of the public. FDNY had talked about offering community
CPR courses at the stations, health screenings, and blood pressure checks. All of these were very ambitious ideas by
the Fire Department and NYC. This would have served the poor and needy so how can you argue with that? They also
promised to improve the harsh working conditions of FDNY EMS EMTs and Paramedics. Because of all of these
promises on March 17th, 1996 NYC EMS was officially taken over by the Fire Department.

After the takeover and all the promises made to NYC EMS, FDNY proceeded to suck up our funding and started
eliminating vital components of NYC EMS like the Major Emergency Response Vehicles and The Emergency Response
Squad. The city and FDNY begin the privatization of EMS by allowing for profit companies with close ties to the Mayor to
respond to 911 calls without proper public review, putting the public at risk. The city and FDNY took away our career
ladder to RN and PA. There was no longer civil service testing all the way up the ranks of EMS. After you took the civil
service test for Lt you needed to be appointed by FDNY (at will) to a higher rank. The higher you climb the less job
protection you have. These moves by FDNY and the city crushed morale. We began bleeding to death from a thousand
little cuts because our top talent in EMS was vanishing. People just walked away.

Now that you have read all of that, let me say that working for an EMS service anywhere in the world is a very tough job.
The challenges and dangers that EMS workers face are unique and all too often our actions go unrecognized by the
public and unreported by the media. The media in New York for the most part is not interested in the plight of EMS. The
NYC press would rather report that Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan was spotted at a nightclub than real news. Sadly, most
of the members of the media in NYC are a pack of  jackals that would eat their own young.

I don't believe anyone goes into EMS expecting to get rich. People join EMS to save lives. This type of work is a calling
and most of the people I know, deep down inside, love EMS work. It's just the FDNY bureaucracy and mismanagement
that they hate. You would think that with FDNY's one billion dollar yearly budget that they could do a better job of
running EMS. However this goes to show that all the money in the world cannot buy common sense. FDNY is grossly
mismanaged and is run by a bunch of empty suits, and yes men.

I have found out since the takeover that the FDNY family is more like the Manson family. I think that if this is how FDNY
thinks EMS should be run then the Fire Chiefs need to adjust the little antenna on their tin foil hats because they are
getting some serious interference. You will see as you read this website that these FDNY Fire Chiefs aren't fit to be
second in command of the Hekawi Tribe from F Troop much less run a major Fire Department. After seeing the Fire
Department take over and run NYC EMS for the fist time I felt like Charlton Heston in Planet of The Apes, when he woke
up in that field and saw the ape with the gun riding the horse.

Commissioner Sal Cassano is the now in charge of FDNY. He was a Firefighter and has moved up the ranks to the top
spot. He is in charge of FDNY which runs EMS but has never done EMS for a living. He is not an EMT or a Paramedic.
Mayor Bloomberg simply does not care about EMS or who responds to your home when you are having a life or death
emergency. The Mayor would let anyone who could put red lights on a van answer 911 calls in NYC.

Keep in mind as you go through this website that it was not made because I long for the "Good old days" and want to
turn back the clock. What happened all those years ago is over and done. This is not about the past but about the
future. This website is here to show two things. What is happening to EMS in NYC and across the globe and how the
mismanagement of an EMS system effects the people that EMS proudly serves 24/7.

This page is dedicated to the people of the City of New York who deserve a great EMS system but because of FDNY
and the City of New York no longer have one.
Welcome to The FDNY EMS Website
Updated April 20th, 2013