Robert S. Grossman, MD, who served as president of Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association, Inc, for nearly a decade, recently stepped down from that leadership role, with Malcolm McLachlan, who formerly headed the group, again assuming the role of association president. Dr Grossman remains as an association trustee.

The nonprofit association, which oversees the financial aspects of the local ambulance service, and Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which provides volunteer ambulance staffing, are housed in a stately brick building at 6 Washington Square, Fairfield Hills, that opened in October 2014.

While heading the association, Dr Grossman was instrumental in the planning and construction of the new $4.2 million facility, which was built on municipally owned land dedicated for ambulance service use. The spacious new quarters are a marked improvement for ambulance staffers, who had worked amid difficult cramped conditions for decades at 77 Main Street in a structure that had formerly been a gas station/auto repair garage.

The Main Street facility was inadequate and not an appropriate setting for the work of an ambulance corps, Dr Grossman said. Consequently, in setting the goals for new facilities, the association and the corps discussed at length what was needed and wanted in terms of a new building, Dr Grossman said.

Dr Grossman said he watched closely as the building took shape at Fairfield Hills.

Mr McLachlan, who served the association's vice president before becoming its president in April, said members of his family have been involved with the local ambulance service since 1950. In the past, Mr McLachlan served as both the group's president and treasurer. After an absence from the group, he returned to the organization in 2016.

Noting that the volunteer service responds to approximately 2,500 ambulance calls annually, Mr McLachlan said that one of his main goals as president is keeping the group's emergency medical technician (EMT) staffing at suitable levels.

The ambulance corps has a pool of about 70 members. Two-thirds of that pool responds to the bulk of ambulance calls, he said.

"They do it because they want to do it," in the spirit of volunteerism, Mr McLachlan said of EMTs.

It takes much dedication for volunteer EMTs to continue responding to call after call, Mr McLachlan said. A major goal is attracting more EMTs to the organization, Mr McLachlan added.

EMTs are augmented by paramedics, who have a higher level of training. The ambulance corps employs paramedics from Danbury Ambulance Service, Inc. The town covers two-thirds of paramedic costs and the association covers the remaining third.

Dr Grossman noted that many younger EMTs become involved in the volunteer ambulance corps because they are seeking a career in the medical field. The doctor said that approximately 90 percent of the EMTs with the ambulance corps are Newtown residents.

On a grimmer note, Dr Grossman said that with the rise in ambulance calls stemming from accidental overdoses of prescription medications, both in Newtown and elsewhere, regulations have been enacted to limit doctors' ability to prescribe various opioid drugs. Many doctors have been the target of enforcement for having prescribed too many such drugs, he noted.

To better deal with drug overdoses, ambulance crews and police carry the chemical antidote for opioid overdoses, which if administered in a timely manner, abruptly wakens drug users from their overdosed condition, reviving them, Mr McLachlan said.

The ambulance service has three larger modular-style ambulances in service, as well as a newly acquired Ford Transit van-style ambulance.