Emergency Medical Technicians have expressed concerns about drivers blocking a busy Brooklyn emergency center entrance with their cars, reports CBSNewYork. EMTs have said these vehicles are impeding the ambulance bay when seconds matter the most.
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On February 23, EMTs got ready to transport a patient from Brooklyn Hospital to another on location, but were unable to because cars blocked the emergency area, trapping the ambulance.
“We couldn’t get the patient out, because we were blocked in here. The whole entrance was blocked in,” Nicholas Rodriguez told CBS2 exclusively.
According to Rodriguez, vehicles are double parked on DeKalb Avenue every day. This leads to a chain reaction of backups that halt traffic to a crawl, meanwhile, sick patients are prevented from getting urgent care.
“God forbid something happens to a patient while he’s back here,” EMT Ed Samuel told the station.
Hospital staff members have said they have had to unload patients on the sidewalk because cabs and car services like Uber are making drop-offs where they shouldn’t be doing so. When CBS2 reporter Natalie Duddrige was outside of the hospital, there were at least a dozen cars that drove the wrong way out of the entrance.
“It’s a constant struggle to come down to DeKalb, to make the right into the parking lot,” EMT Haley Brown told CBS2. “There’s taxi cabs, there’s regular cars just blocking.”
Hospital staff members have proposed the city take out the metered parking spaces that are in front of the hospital and make the area a no parking zone instead.
“If they make that a no standing zone, say like a cardiac arrest or something happens, the ambulance can pull right there without having to worry about a car being in the way,” said Samuel.
From the hospital visitors’ perspective, they say there is not anywhere else to park unless they pay top dollar to do so.
“Hospital don’t have no parking. You have to pay $13 for half an hour. That’s crazy,” one man told CBS2.
“It’s going to be hard for us to find parking,” another added.
The city is examining the situation, according to the Brooklyn borough president. However, EMTs believe there should be no debate between sick patients’ well being and parking availability.
Another theory hospital staff member have is the traffic lights timing could be off. They have request driver do no top in the intersection in front of the emergency room driveway.
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