Ambulance service seeks financial support from Charleroi Borough

By TAYLOR BROWN
tbrown@yourmvi.com
Charleroi Council will consider ways to help Rostraver West Newton Emergency Services (RWNES) as the agency continues to face to staffing, equipment and funding hurdles.
Representatives from RWNES, including Business Manager Greg Cominsky and paramedic Supervisor Dan Wade, met with borough officials Wednesday to discuss problems the agency, like many others across the country face, and how the borough can help.
RWNES is in the process of visiting all 23 of the municipalities it serves to ask for support as they continue to wait for legislation to be passed to provide much needed financial help.
“There is a big problem in the commonwealth with our EMS, it’s in crisis mode and, let me be honest, health care in a whole is in crisis mode,” Cominsky said. “It’s horrible today. COVID did a number, the insurance industries are not funding things properly, specifically EMS and it is creating a whole dynamic of things.”
Cominsky explained to council the different problems RWNES is up against, including staffing, citing peoples unwillingness to work, being able to afford offering competitive pay and the demands of the job which can to lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and burnout.
Additionally, Cominsky said the agency is busier than ever with calls at an all-time high, some of which that do not require an ambulance.

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