Late last month, D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells asked D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby to launch an investigation into why 25 employees in the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department were racking up more than $1 million in overtime pay. News that the victim of a hit-and-run (who also happens to be a D.C. police officer) had to wait 18 minutes for an ambulance from another jurisdiction adds real urgency to Wells’ request.
On March 8, 2007 the District government settled a lawsuit with the family of New York Times reporter David Rosenbaum, who died after FEMS failed to provide him with timely and appropriate care after he was severely beaten during a 2006 street mugging. In return for dropping its suit, the Rosenbaum family demanded that a task force be convened with the specific goal of “improving the delivery of emergency medical services by FEMS.”
