I don't think that is across the board...because I have been a passenger on a Southwest flight from ABQ to ATL somehow connecting in LAS. After we departed LAS, an older passenger started to have difficulty breathing, and they followed all the protocol with dispatch and doctors and it was decided to declare an emergency and get on the ground, the closest airport at that point being ABQ. We were on the ground and met by emergency personnel and medics who were on the plane within five minutes of us landing (the door was opened and they promptly jumped on) and within 30 minutes the crew had been briefed, the passenger was on their way to the hospital and we were back on our way to ATL. The only painful part of that process was the fact that we stopped at the origination point, and we got into ATL late enough that the plane train wasn't running. You don't realize how large that airport is until you don't have the option to use it.
Ma'am, you (or the patient) rolled a seven. Reference Derg's above, or the original for immediate evidence. It IS across the board, even within the fine city of Atlanta, and in ABQ, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange and Westchester Counties in NY, Ridgefield, New Fairfield and Danbury in CT (all places with which I interact almost daily, first person). Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It depends on what else is happening at the time of your particular emergency. Timing, what else is going on at the moment of your particular need, is critical.
Your personal first due engine at home will have three or four firefighters, I think, responding to a reported house fire. On arrival, one is on the pump, NFPA requires two in on the first hoseline. The last person, an officer, is sizing up the need for additional resources on the walk-around. Who is searching above the fire for your children, spouse or crippled parent until the second-due rig arrives? SECONDS matter in a working fire. The second due engine or ladder is two minutes out. If the two-person hose crew saves a victim, they lose the house.
You have a home invasion and can dial 911 before dropping the phone in front of an armed perp. Unfortunately, the city council cut funding for the patrol that normally covers your sector, and the overnight patrol is out at a serious car accident in the second of two sectors she covers. Help is six minutes further away, quite long enough for your valuables to be stolen, your throat to be cut, and your house to be torched. Neighbors will call in the fire, and mutual aid companies will respond, with the home department previously working the extrication/car fire on the earlier auto accident.
ADEQUATE STAFFING, in every jurisdiction, shouldn't be a matter of tming or luck. Life-threatening emergencies regularly occur more than one-at-a-time, across ALL jurisdictions.
Life safety shouldn't be a crap shoot for ANYONE, at anytime. That we can generally do the job, most of the time, by doing "more with less," and noting that it is "usually" enough, doesn't mitigate the personal loss to someone when our best efforts fail.
The problem IS across the board.
