Saturday, August 30, 2008

25 minutes is too long!!














I consider myself very fortunate to have lived in Longmeadow for 28 years and not needed to call 911 for a family medical emergency and ambulance service.

The Longmeadow Fire Department has provided outstanding 24/7 ambulance service for our town residents for many years and it is one of our town services that is a critical resource for everyone.

Many towns in our area such as East Longmeadow engage private companies to provide this service and sometimes the service does not meet expectations.

As part of my Longmeadow- FSBO service on LongmeadowBiz I get to meet many people who are selling their Longmeadow home and moving out of town.

I spoke to one of my past clients who had sold her home in Longmeadow and moved to a condominium/town house in East Longmeadow earlier this year. I asked her how it was going and she told me that she missed the great services provided by our Longmeadow Fire Dept. Recently, her husband had an medical emergency and she promptly called 911 for help. When the 911 phone call was answered she was placed on “HOLD”. While she didn't elaborate on all of the details, the end result was that it took almost 25 minutes for the ambulance to respond to her home. The crisis ended well and her husband was OK but such a response is unacceptable.

I’m counting on our Longmeadow town leaders to provide the necessary budget resources for our Fire Dept for ambulance equipment, personnel and training so that when my wife or I or anyone else in town needs to call 911… it will not take 25 minutes!