Responding to the resignation and scathing letter by Doctor Jullette M. Saussy, the Mayor had this to say,

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said they would find someone to replace her who could better work within the current structure. “What’s important is that we have a team committed to our system and not saying, ‘This is the system here, I don’t like it, so you got to change it or else,'” Bowswer said.

Let me put that through the politician BS filter and translate it for you.

“We have sucked for years, we know we suck, we are powerless to change anything. so we want a medical director who will pretend we don’t suck and pencil whip the paperwork so our system can continue to suck. I don’t have the guts or the ability to fix the problems that Doctor Saussey pointed out, so I’ll pretend that she was the problem not the system.

The Chief had this to say,

Dean maintains that the fire department is doing everything it can to improve the system, but acknowledges it is an uphill battle. “It would be nice to see a miracle happen. It’s a system that has been challenged for many years. In nine months, we are talking about changes that this organization has never seen before,” Dean said.

I wonder what changes he is talking about? They response times are still horrible, crews disappear at hospitals without accountability, fire officers refuse to go to medical calls or pretend they didn’t hear them. Nothing seems to have changed in decades.

I doubt that having private ambulance services respond to low priority calls is going to solve any of the problems with the EMS service.

No wonder their radio system is encrypted. If the citizens could actually hear what goes on, there would be vats of tar boiling and no chicken would be able to retain it’s feathers.