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Select board hears details on new ALS intercept service, first-year funding and in-house paramedic plans
Summary
Town officials discussed an intercept advanced life-support service replacing a current provider, first-year state funding that will make the service free to participating towns, vehicle and staffing plans, and the town—s parallel plan to add two paramedic firefighters to maintain in-house coverage if needed.
The Kingston Select Board discussed a new advanced life-support (ALS) intercept service and plans to keep local paramedic capability at its meeting. The current provider referenced in the meeting will end service at 4 p.m. on March 21, and towns in the area are being offered a one-year contract for an ALS intercept service that will be paid for in the first year by state funds.
The Fire Chief (name not specified), Fire Chief, Kingston Fire Department, described the proposed operating model: one vehicle staffed by two paramedics based in Brentwood and a second vehicle with one paramedic based in Plaistow; the Plaistow unit would also be available to Kingston as part of an intercept service that any participating town could call. "We do transport patients to both facilities in Port, in Seabrook and in Plaistow," the chief said, describing how crews currently move patients among local hospitals and standalone emergency rooms.
Why it matters: board members said the service is critical to maintaining paramedic-level response across Kingston and neighboring towns, but the arrangement is billed as fluid. Towns will sign one-year contracts before Jan. 1 of each contract year, and officials do not yet know which towns will participate year to year. The town has an ambulance revolving fund that can be used if budgets leave a gap in service for a year.
The meeting included an update on funding secured to cover the service's first year. According to remarks in the meeting, the Attorney General—s office, working with Janet Stevens (identified in the discussion as an executive counselor), secured $2,000,000 to make the first year free for communities. The Fire Chief also referenced a state-level trust fund that he said distributes about $8,000,000 a year and said Stevens would continue pursuing offset funding in coming years.
Board members and the fire chief also discussed the town's parallel staffing plan. A select board member identified as Peter (last name not specified), Select Board member, said the select board and the budget committee "do support that addition of 2 paramedics" to the fire department as a way to help ensure Kingston retains paramedic-level service if the intercept arrangement changes. The Fire Chief said he will monitor costs, response times and the operational mix of the intercept service and in-house paramedics going forward.
Discussion points and limits of local authority: the Fire Chief noted the location of the Plaistow vehicle could change depending on which towns sign up, and that the Plaistow chief (described in the meeting as the operations manager for the service) is open to adjusting deployment to meet community needs. The chief also cautioned that standalone emergency rooms (examples cited included Plaistow and Seabrook) cannot admit patients and must transfer admitted patients to their parent hospitals; the chief said that traumas and strokes are typically routed to Portsmouth Hospital.
No formal action was taken at the meeting on the intercept contract or on hiring paramedics; board members said funding and staffing decisions will be handled through the town—s upcoming budget process. The budget committee and select board indicated support for adding two paramedic firefighter positions but did not vote on a permanent staffing change at this session.
Provenance (transcript excerpts): "And X-ray ALS will terminate at 4PM on March 21. There'll be no lapse in service, which is a good thing." (transcript segment beginning at 0.88 seconds)
"We have through, Janet Stevens, the executive counselor and, the AG's office, we have secured $2,000,000 to make the first year free for communities." (transcript segment beginning at 178.87 seconds)
Ending: The Select Board and fire department described the next steps as monitoring participation by neighboring towns, finalizing one-year contracts before Jan. 1 for future years, and tracking costs and response times as the new intercept service starts. The board indicated it would consider permanent staffing changes, including adding two paramedic firefighters, through the normal budget process.
