The ambulance has been very fortunate in having personnel available during the day. Our personnel are highly trained and dedicated (over 2,000 hours) in order to serve the Town of Washington. During this year we conducted three EMS Education courses and are delighted to add six new emergency medical technicians and medical response technicians to our roster. The Fire Department’s Rescue One and Rescue Two trucks respond with medically trained personnel when the ambulance is on another call. All of our members are volunteers and devote hundreds of hours responding to calls, training, and maintenance of our equipment.

With the New Year upon us, we are facing increasing challenges in emergency medical services. Because of our training and dedication, we are poised to meet these challenges. We are looking forward to becoming a “Heart Safe Community,” having automatic defibrillators positioned strategically around town to immediately treat a heart attack victim.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Washington Lions Club for their support and to the Washington Police and Fire Departments for their assistance when responding to calls. While many services around the state have begun billing for services, we do not. We are able to operate through funding provided by your donations and the support of the Lion's Club. These contributions are greatly appreciated.

We operate under a “free for all” response system. All 911 calls originating in Washington are picked up by Litchfield County Dispatch. If the call is for a medical emergency, they will then dispatch the ambulance. All of our volunteers carry pagers and two-way portable radios which receive the dispatch call. If available, the responders then call LCD to let them know will be responding. The first three people to call in will make up the crew and drop what they are doing to go directly to the patient, or to the firehouse to pick up the ambulance. We are fairly successful at getting a First Responder to the patient within 5 minutes of their call and usually have the ambulance on scene within 12 minutes. This can be complicated by such things as weather and/or road conditions, the distance from the firehouse and the location of our personnel at the time of the call. Once there, we will assess and stabilize the patient and then transport them to the nearest hospital.

We are always looking for more help, especially during the day. If you are interested in joining us, please call 860-868-7913 or come to one of our meetings which are held at the Depot Firehouse every second Tuesday at 7:30 pm. Washington Ambulance is based out of Depot Firehouse at 109 Bee Brook Rd., Washington Depot Ct.

We also have an Open House so that the public can come down and take a look at our equipment, what we do, and how we do it. We are always looking for people that may have an interest in helping others in their community. If interested, please email washingtonambulance@charter.net.