Sheldon, Iowa — The Sheldon Community Ambulance Team, or SCAT, is finding itself in a position that many other rural ambulance services have been experiencing in recent months, namely a shortage of EMT’s to staff SCAT’s two ambulances.
SCAT Director Cindy Freeman will speak to the Sheldon City Council at their meeting Wednesday afternoon to inform them of the problem that she sees on the horizon.
Freeman says that, while SCAT isn’t in staffing trouble yet, she wants to be proactive with the situation, since circumstances can change overnight. She says they’ve been trying different things to attract new members, but the most successful has been word of mouth.
She says that she has done some calculations on how many volunteer hours are required to cover a 24/7 ambulance service like SCAT.
Freeman says that, while they are currently able to fully staff SCAT’s two ambulances, they are still in need of additional volunteers. She says that anyone who wants more information about SCAT, or thinks they may want to volunteer, can do so in a variety of ways.
She says that, as other area ambulance teams lose membership, SCAT is called on more and more frequently to provide ambulance services to surrounding towns, as well as handling all the calls in Sheldon.
