Riding in an ambulance in the nation’s capital may be hazardous to your health–and fire responders and nurses are demanding a change.  Unions representing the District of Columbia’s emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire fighters and registered nurses today urged Mayor Vincent Gray to ensure that the city’s ambulances are in working order and have operational air conditioners. 

Last week, seven of the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department’s 25 basic life support ambulances–or 28 percent–were out of service.  Many ambulances did not have functional air-conditioning systems.  One ambulance without a working air-conditioner was ordered back in service even though a Department of Health inspector ordered it off the road after the temperature in the patients’ compartment reached 107 degrees.  Another ambulance had a makeshift box fan to try to cool the patient compartment when its air-conditioner did not work.

In the letter to Gray, the union leaders said:

It is simply unacceptable for patients in need of emergency care to either not have an ambulance to transport them when needed or to have to be transported in an ambulance without a functioning air-conditioner. 

The letter was signed by Brad Burton, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of National Nurses United (NNU); Margaret Shanks, RN, President of the DC Nurses Association (DCNA); and Edward Smith, President of the D.C. Fire Fighters Association Local 36.