Narcan For Firefighters to Deploy is Being Held Up by City Hall

Email to a friend Permalink

Monday, October 27, 2014

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

After a string of opioid related deaths this year, the Worcester Police Department, in just six weeks, trained their officers and were authorized by City Manager Ed Augustus to spend $13,000 to buy Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug. Narcan is now used by each trained officer to help first-responders prevent opiate and other drug overdose related deaths.

However, the Worcester Fire Department, a first responder and typically the first emergency vehicle on the scene of any accident or crime, is still not equipped with Narcan. There are a number of factors for the delay, but at the forefront is the looming contract negotiations between the department and the City of Worcester.

The contract, which expired this past May, is long overdue and members of the Worcester Fire Department believe that the city is delaying the use of Narcan to prevent any raises going through before the contract is negotiated on.

(Due to the current contract negotiations between the City of Worcester and the Worcester Fire Department, firefighters asked to be quoted anonymously.)

“In my point of view, the Worcester Fire Department will do it if they get recognized for a change of duty. To take on more responsibility, we need a 2% raise, “ a firefighter said. “This is being used as a bargaining chip on both sides of the negotiation table.”

“The city is supposed to be filing for a grant for that, but we haven’t heard anything on the grant yet. Grants are written downtown and we only get informed when we get them. I’m not sure why the city hasn’t applied for the grant. Maybe they think UMASS and the police are meeting the communities needs regarding the opiate crisis,” said a representative with the Fire Department.

Stephen Abraham, Worcester’s Registrar of Probate, said “Given the fact that it is such a positive opportunity to address the issue, in the short-term there’s no reason there should be any delay.”

Abraham hosted a forum earlier this month to discuss the city’s opiate crisis at the Worcester Law Library. At the forum, a presentation was made by the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region. “It’s absolutely proven that it can be immediately used to save someone’s life,” Abraham said.

When asked why the Police department was able to receive training and funding so quickly, one firefighter believes that it is due to Worcester Police doing their due diligence.

The firefighter said, “The Worcester Police are much better at public relations and marketing. They know how to use the media. They’re always the first one to file a grant on their own. Believe me, it looks great when you say police are equipped with the Narcan.”

One firefighter added, “Police aren’t required on EMS calls.”

Yet not all firefighters are that skeptical. One fire department source said “I think the police are doing a great job with the narcan so far, but why they received training before the fire department, no one knows.”

According to a report by GoLocal in August, Worcester Police was still too late to implement Narcan. Also, in an earlier report from GoLocal, other cities and towns are ahead of Worcester's Narcan initiative.

Even in the midst of these negotiations, coming next month is voting for all positions of the Worcester Firefighters Union. If the Narcan issue isn’t resolved by then, and funding isn’t in place, it could delay the use of Narcan even further and create even more turmoil for negotiations.

One firefighter said, “Hopefully soon we will have it (Narcan) on our trucks, but we don’t have it now because of contract negotiations. The city is telling us to do a higher level of life care that is beyond the capacity of a first responder. What if something goes wrong? Who is at fault?”

---

Related Slideshow: Worcester Crime Trends and Lack of Police Transparency

Related Articles

• Worcester PD Late to Implement Narcan, Loses Lives in the Process
• Worcester PD to Press: Not All Media Outlets Created Equal
• Almost 75 Percent of Worcester Fire Dept. Calls Not Fire Related

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

Email to a friend Permalink