Firestorm

Every minute in America an ambulance gets turned away from an ER because they are too full. In LA the wait time in some ERs is as long as 48 hours and the entire 911 system is being challenged in ways that are alarming.

This dramatic film explores the crisis through the eyes of Los Angeles Fire Department Station 65. The firefighters have become the de-facto paramedics in a largely poor and uninsured community, currently 82% of the department's work is medical, rather than fire-related. Eleven hospitals have closed in just five years in LA, and the challenge of delivering more than 500 patients per day to a shrinking number of hospitals is overwhelming.

As the US health care debate rages, Firestorm reveals the deadly consequences of a system on the brink of collapse.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• debate
• healthcare
• US
• documentary
• hd
• television
• ambulance
• fire