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Raytown EMS relying more heavily on KCFD

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There's concern Raytown Emergency Medical Services may lack the money and staff to effectively run that city's ambulance service.

"They can't recruit anyone, they can't maintain staff, and so their turnover rate has been fairly significant over the last several years," said Firefighters Union President Taylor Seedorff.

His union represents Raytown EMS employees.

Seedorf says the agency has been putting savings ahead of safety. As a result, he says a two-ambulance service is frequently down to one.

"My members are obviously displeased and they have been for some time," said Seedorff.

One indication of the strain on Raytown EMS is the agency's increasing reliance on the Kansas City Fire Department to provide back up. According to records exclusively obtained by the 41 Action News Investigators, Kansas City Fire Department responses to Raytown have doubled in a two-year span. KCFD responded to Raytown 166 times in 2013, 286 times in 2014 and 337 times last year.

By contrast, Raytown responded to KCFD calls for back up 14 times in 2013, twice in 2014 and zero times last year.

KCFD Chief Paul Berardi says he's been discussing the issue with Raytown EMS Director Doug Jonesi the last six to eight months.

"We understand it's an issue, they understand it's an issue and mutual aid is supposed to be mutual," Berardi said.

Jonesi declined to speak to the 41 Action News Investigators on camera. However, he did say he's in the process of hiring staff.

Jonesi also says KCFD only asked for mutual aid once last year.

"I don't want to get into a war of words here," Berardi said. "I think previous asks have been denied."

"There were some years that we actually ran more calls for Kansas City than Kansas City ran for us," said former Raytown EMS Director Matt Cushman.

Cushman says while those years were few and far between, a pay scale he put in place helped keep employees at Raytown EMS. But he says that pay scale was scrapped when the recession hit and hasn't been reinstated.

"This is not just a problem for the employees, this is a problem for all the citizens of Raytown," Seedorff said.

With the recent loss of two employees, Raytown EMS is now down to nine crew members with a budget for 13.

One new crew member is scheduled to start next week.

Union leaders would like four to six more full-time staff.

Three years ago, a proposal to merge EMS with the Raytown Fire District included cost savings. But that merger has yet to take place.

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Andy Alcock can be reached at anderson.alcock@kshb.com.

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