by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Representatives from every county ambulance service last week attended an emergency meeting of the Washington County Commissioners to voice concerns over dwindling personnel counts following the deadline of a state vaccine mandate for health care personnel. 

Under the mandate, all employees of Maine health care facilities, including EMS services, must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or have a medical exemption. The deadline for EMS compliance passed on Oct. 15, and the remainder of the state’s health care workers must comply by Oct. 29.

State data shows Washington County’s EMS having lost 4.8 percent or six EMS workers due to the mandate. The data is self-reported by EMS organizations to the state, and locally inaccurate. 

Moosabec Ambulance Service Chief Renée Gray says she is aware of roughly 25 people who have left EMS in Washington County due to the mandate, a number that includes five from Moosabec, four from Pleasant Point, one from Machias, and five from Downeast EMS, where Director Eddie Moreside now needs to fill 10 positions.

“We were already in a crisis situation before the mandate,” said Moreside, who works between 70 and 80 hours each week. Of his remaining 32 employees, eight work 70 hours or more. Downeast EMS covers one-third of the county, with bases in Baileyville, Lubec, and Eastport. With the recent mandate-related closure of Pleasant Point’s ambulance service, Downeast EMS will now cover their area, too.

Commissioner chairman Chris Gardner said the Oct. 21 meeting was a “fact-gathering” effort and that the commissioners are not anti-vaccine

“[The mandate] is well-intentioned, we understand,” said Gardner. “But when you look at the numbers and how few EMS people we have in Washington County, does reducing the ability of EMS to respond to the rural parts of eastern Maine actually accomplish the goal...of keeping the people safe?”

Gray said the loss of even one employee can create dramatic service changes for an ambulance service because most people already cover far more than 40 hours per week.

“I’ve got one person that has worked 96 hours a week. If we lose one person, I’m down for the week. That’s huge,” said Gray, whose service has lost five people since enforcement of the mandate. “So the state is going about this at the wrong angle.”

Gray fears burnout and service closures if Moosabec is unable to backfill its empty positions, an opinion echoed by other service chiefs in attendance at the meeting. To mitigate the possibility of local service closures, Gray says a Facebook group has been formed to allow neighboring ambulance services such as Cherryfield, Petit Manan, and Machias, to let each other know when they will be offline. 

Several legal efforts to overturn the mandate failed in recent weeks. On behalf of the county, Gardner says the commissioners have sent a letter to Governor Janet Mills. You can read the full letter here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21093918-ems-letter-10-25-21-fin...

Fresh horses?

Gray urges anyone with an interest in emergency medical services to consider taking a position in Washington County. No special licenses or medical training is needed to drive an ambulance, and an upcoming class can help interested people gain their emergency medical technician training.

Washington County Community College will next month offer the course, specifically targeted to address the EMS shortage Downeast.

“Workforce shortages are a huge challenge across the region and state, however, the extreme shortage of EMTs in the region is critical. WCCC has been a long-time training partner of our Washington County EMS providers, and we are proud to continue to provide basic and advanced training options for emergency medicine,” said WCCC Dean of Workforce Development Nichole Sawyer. “Information about an upcoming EMT Basic course will be released this week.”

The course will be offered online and in-person, with in-person lab days held in both Calais and Machias. Course information will be found on WCCC’s Facebook and web pages or by calling 207-454-1040.