I WANT THE BEST SERVICE: How to save hundreds of lives with a swish of a pen

If you are shot, where would you rather be -- New York City or Philadelphia? If you want to stay alive, the unfortunate answer is New York City.

Why? In New York City their policies bend towards saving lives and not hamstringing their paramedics and police with unreasonable rules.

Here's one example: New York City has more ambulances for its density. They have so many ambulances, in fact, that some don't even go into stations but just park on sidewalks until they are needed.

In Philadelphia we have too few. Due to increased crime and other incidents requiring attention, some ambulances have to make nearly 9,000 runs a year. So when police rush onto the scene after a gun shot, they often arrive far before the ambulances. As a result, they have to put victims in their police cruisers to drive them to ambulance or hospital.

It's a shame, because Philadelphia has some of the bravest paramedics, firefighters, and police officers. Yet they are being under-resourced in their mission to save people.

I have a bold belief: I want the best service.

I'm just now starting to enter the age when I am getting more concerned about heart attacks. But the Street Administration is risking my and other lives.

For months they have refused to sign a binding contract award with the City's Firefighters and Paramedics. The paramedics are asking for some sensible policies, such as placing a cross-trained Firefighter/Paramedic on the fire trucks that arrive at emergency scenes.

Such a policy increases the chances of someone surviving a heart attack by leaps and bounds. Without such a policy, the chances for surviving a cardiac arrest may be as low as 4%, as seen under the Street Administration.

Even trained paramedics are sometimes hamstrung by laws which refuse to allow them to use certain equipment because of their role. So even though they have the training, they are not allowed to perform their skill. They're not allowed to save lives!

Moving towards the best service means that we need to release people to use the skills they have. With a swish of the pen the Street Administration could have potentially saved dozens of lives. But politics once more stood in the way of common sense.

It's time for a new politics of hope that fixes our broken politics. It's time we aim for the best service and don't take no as answer. Our lives our at stake.

Marc Stier is running for City Council At-Large