Nash paramedic says lack of hazard pay is causing EMS staff shortage

A paramedic in Nash County said he feels the county isn’t giving frontline workers the support they need during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anthony Graves is calling for help from county leadership to keep emergency services up and running.

“This county is in trouble, and that’s the point it’s getting to,” Graves said. “So they need to actually take action.”

Like everywhere else in the country, Graves told WRAL News the coronavirus has strained first responders in Nash County.

“Respiratory calls have gone up, call volume has gone up, everything has increased except for staffing,” he said.

Graves said the number of paramedics in Nash County has fallen through the pandemic, and for one reason specifically.

“We haven’t received any hazard pay,” Graves said. “The only increase that we saw was a 3% cost of living increase that the entire county got.”

Graves’ paychecks showed his salary has increased by just over a dollar an hour since 2019, the result of a 16% raise from the county over the past three years unrelated to the pandemic. In that same time frame, the dollar had an average inflation rate of nearly 4% a year, which means today's prices are 1.07 times higher than they were in 2019.

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Since then, the paramedic told WRAL News that COVID-19 has made his job and those of other first responders far more difficult day in and day out.

Graves said the pandemic had hurt both morale and availability for emergency services – while Nash County normally maintains 11 ambulances on the road at a time, staffing shortages throughout the past year have led them to use as few as eight.

“They basically expect us to and have us operating at minimum staffing, and the minimum amount of trucks that we truly need to cover all the emergency calls in Nash County,” Graves said.

Nash County Emergency Services Director Brian Brantley echoed Graves’ concerns, telling WRAL News that 911 call volume had increased by 18% during the pandemic, and average response time had gone from under nine minutes to just under 11 minutes.

Brantley also said that because five staff members have been on long-term leave, the county has had to temporarily close some EMS stations when they didn’t have workers to staff them.

The emergency services director said as of Tuesday the county had made hires to return to full staffing for emergency services and he hoped to have all stations open again full-time by November. But Graves said he wanted to see county leaders go further.

On Monday, the Nash County Board of Commissioners approved a preliminary plan to spend the $18.3 million the county received from the federal government in the American Rescue Plan Act, and Graves said that least part of the $1.5 million that wasn’t spoken for yet should go to hazard pay and supplies for Nash EMS.

“Use the COVID money for what it’s meant for,” Graves said. “Use it for the longevity and health of frontline workers along with equipment that we need.”

WRAL News asked Nash County Commissioners Board chairman Robbie Davis about the paramedic’s wishes to use ARPA funds for hazard pay.

Davis said the county would be forming a committee to decide how to spend the remaining money, and EMS representatives could apply to be considered.