Washington’s City Council, during its meeting Monday, learned that an increased paramedics presence in Beaufort County will affect the city’s EMS services at times.

John Flemming, director of Beaufort County’s EMS program, told the council there could be times when city paramedics respond to areas usually covered by other EMS providers with paramedics. That could happen, Flemming said, if Broad Creek paramedics respond to a call in the Bath area and the city provides back-up paramedic service in the Broad Creek coverage area while the Broad Creek paramedics are answering a call in Bath Township or Pantego Township.

Such a situation “really stresses the system,” Flemming said.

“Our goal is to provide a paramedic-level unit to any citizen inside of Beaufort County in a reasonable amount of time. We’re moving forward with that process. On Jan. 18, we plan to go live with a full paramedic-level ambulance in the Bath Township. We plan to go live with two quick-response vehicles with paramedic-level services, one on the south side of the river in the Blounts Creek area and one on the north side of the river to service Pantego and the Pinetown area to provide paramedic services,” Flemming said. “This is the first step in the process.”

Flemming told the council that “seed” money provided by Vidant Health is being used to provide paramedic service in areas of Beaufort County that do not have it. Those areas comprise about a quarter of Beaufort County.

“Our future is we’re going to provide paramedic-level service, like you have here in the City of Washington, to every resident, whether a resident of the city or the county, that requires a paramedic at any time,” Flemming said.

Councilman Doug Mercer asked Flemming if the county’s EMS program would continue to rely on volunteers to provide transport for patients first treated by paramedics who answer EMS calls with quick-response vehicles, which are not fully equipped as EMS ambulances.

“Yes, sir. Our volunteer system is still a strong, integral part of this EMS system. So, either a volunteer truck or the next closest (paid-crew) truck to that paramedic QRV will provide that transport,” Flemming said.

Earlier this month, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners approved 16 new hires that should ensure all county residents have access to paramedic-level service.