CHARLESTOWN — In March, the Charlestown Selectboard, in an effort to cut expenses, instructed the fire department to stop responding to medical calls, aside from those within the two most dire categories.
Now, some members of the community worry that most of the remaining emergency calls warrant a faster response than the town’s contracted ambulance service can provide.
While the Fire Department is still dispatched to calls involving a serious threat to life, all else is left to Golden Cross Ambulance, based out of Claremont, unless they request assistance.
Former fire chief Jerry Beaudry and Charlestown Health Center Director Morgan Sanborn worry that without the fire department personnel to care for those awaiting hospital transport, patients could suffer.
“As of now, they have no hope,” said Sanborn.
Aside from this limitation on the fire department, the Charlestown Health Center, a primary-care provider on Ceda Road, has grievances against Golden Cross.
“People use our walk-in like it’s an emergency room. Critical patients come in, so providers call for transports,” Sanborn said Thursday by phone.
The concerns outlined to the Charlestown Selectboard in a spring 2025 letter include excessively long response times, discouraging patients from being transported and unprofessional interactions with health care providers.
Providers at the health center reported Golden Cross staff were unfriendly and would attempt to convince patients whom they deemed non-critical not to go to the hospital. Sanborn brought these reports to Beaudry, who said he shared them with the Selectboard.
Golden Cross owner Dale Girard told the Valley News by email Thursday morning that he is on vacation and did not respond to a reporter’s questions for this story.
In March, the town renewed its five-year contract with Golden Cross for $78,600 annually, as confirmed by Selectboard Chairwoman Shelly Andrus.
While Sanborn shared complaints to Beaudry, who passed them along to the Selectboard, a lack of detail hindered action, Andrus said Thursday by phone.
“We can only investigate what people are willing to talk to us about,” Andrus said.
There was a miscommunication over who was attending to the more general concerns that Sanborn brought forward in her letter.
“It was our understanding that Chief Beaudry dealt with that complaint,” said Andrus.
However, Beaudry said he left the complaints in the Selectboard’s hands because he had no formal involvement in the Golden Cross agreement, though he added that he has known Girard for decades.
“They’re the ones that contracted with Golden Cross,” said Beaudry. “That contract never went through the fire department, it was always handled outside the fire department.”
The original letter that Sanborn wrote to the Selectboard last spring was unsigned but included a phone number for the health center. Executive assistant Patty Chaffee called about four days later and reportedly left a message with someone at reception, but received no call back, said Andrus.
Andrus said that the Selectboard emailed Girard regarding the complaints, but did not receive a response.
Upon request by the Selectboard, Sanborn submitted a second version of the letter with her name signed. The Selectboard, however, opted not to follow up on it because they had already emailed Golden Cross and assumed that Beaudry addressed the issue, said Andrus.
Years ago, Charlestown had its own ambulance crew that disbanded mainly due to staffing shortages, said Beaudry. In 2021, the town signed a five-year contract with Golden Cross.
Toward the end of February, the town posted that Golden Cross decided not to renew a contract due to public comments made to residents. However, that news release has since been removed from the town’s website.
After about one week of non-public negotiations following the announcement, the parties agreed to a contract extension. Other changes followed soon after this decision, including a limitation on which medical calls the fire department can respond to, and an early departure of the chief.
Andrus said the changes at the fire department don’t have anything to do with the Golden Cross contract.
Beaudry announced his resignation as chief in January after about a year in the role, effective March 31.
At the request of various residents, he reconsidered, but only if the town agreed to certain conditions, including that the department’s trained medical staff can continue responding to the same amount of medical calls, he said.
The Selectboard did not agree to Beaudry’s terms, and he was relieved of his duties permanently on March 9.
Andrus said that limiting calls was a fiscal decision. After granting the department permission to respond to all calls besides the least severe in October, the Selectboard noticed it was rapidly draining the EMS budget.
As for Beaudry’s early departure, Andrus said that two officers resigned around the same time, so the Selectboard felt it was necessary to start restructuring leadership at the department.
“Golden Cross did not request any regulations, nor dictate Selectboard oversight of the fire department,” said Andrus.
While the Selectboard contends the fire department changes were not made to appease Golden Cross, Andrus did make a point to inform Girard of Beaudry being relieved of duty and the limitations of fire department calls in a March 9 email following the meeting.
“The board had a long discussion with all members of the fire department. Starting tomorrow, they will only be going out on echo and delta calls immediately,” Andrus wrote in the email that the town shared to Beaudry following a public records request.
Calls received by dispatch centers in New Hampshire are ranked by severity as Alpha (non-life threatening), Bravo (possibly life threatening), Charlie (life threatening), Delta (serious life threat) or Echo (life status questionable).
According to Beaudry, the type of call mainly dictates what level of care is needed — basic to advanced — and that time could still be of the essence in Bravo or Charlie-level calls.
While the fire department did not have an ambulance to transport patients, Beaudry said one or more of the 18 firefighters with EMS licensure/certification would go to the scene and provide assistance while awaiting an ambulance crew, who typically transported patients to Springfield Hospital in Vermont, about 15 minutes from Charlestown.
Charlestown has a high volume of calls, which Beaudry estimated at 600 per year, due to a higher concentration of elderly residents and those with chronic illnesses.
Sanborn said that it takes an average of 30 minutes for Golden Cross to respond to emergencies at the health center.
Andrus said the response time to calls in town averages 15 to 18 minutes, but there is variation.
“If you’re bleeding badly and you need someone to help you stop, that’s a long time to wait for an ambulance to get to you,” said Beaudry.
“Golden Cross is aware of the concern and the Selectboard is satisfied that they are making every reasonable effort to improve response times,” said Andrus.
