As a staffing shortage continues, Winchester Fire-EMS may be forced to park equipment or temporarily close stations, depending on available staff.

A memorandum from Winchester Fire-EMS Chief Cathy Rigney to the Winchester Board of Commissioners this week also said the department was eliminating mandatory overtime, aside from emergency situations, to maintain staffing levels.

Rigney said the changes are intended to be temporary, until additional personnel can be hired. Currently, the department’s standard procedure is to have 17 firefighters and EMS on duty as well as three ambulances for EMS calls.

Presently, the department has seven vacant positions and five people off duty with medical issues, according to the department. Four new people are presently going through the department’s recruit training class. The vacancies do not include the six EMS positions recently approved by the commissioners, which would add a fourth front-line ambulance to the department.

“We’re actively recruiting,” Rigney told the commissioners Tuesday. “I’m open for suggestions on what avenues there would be to get people in.”

Rigney said the department recently hired one retired Lexington firefighter and is talking to others.

Tuesday, the commission accepted the resignation of one paramedic who was leaving the department to take a job at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. In recent years, hospitals have been hiring paramedics, which has left fire departments and ambulance services scrambling to find people.

Rigney said the department’s priority is 911 response, whether fire or EMS.

The department would function normally as long as minimum staff is available, the memo states.

“If minimum staffing can not be maintained, then we will re-arrange and position people and apparatus to best meet the community needs with the available resources we have on duty,” the memo states.

Rigney said Friday that could mean parking trucks or closing a station for a shift.

“We have not, but it is possible,” Rigney said. “We may have to shut down a truck or a station and move people.”

The department would continue to handle emergency advanced life support out-of-town transfer calls to other facilities, such as trauma and stroke calls. Non-emergency ALS transfers would go to other agencies.

On-duty ambulance crews would still have the option to transport a patient directly to a Lexington hospital with approval from the battalion chief.

Local transfers, such as dialysis and nursing home runs, would be accepted if medically necessary and staff is available, according to the memo.

EMS and staffing has been a regular topic of discussion since May. A request to add 10 positions to the department in the fiscal year 2020 budget was denied for financial reasons, but the commission voted 3-2 to add six positions in July.

A joint city-county committee recently met for the first time to begin looking at EMS operations as well as the agreement between the two to fund EMS. Currently the county is responsible for 45 percent of any budgetary shortfalls for EMS, with the city responsible for the rest.