Gov. Hochul Provides EMT Training to National Guard Members to Better Assist State’s Exhausted Healthcare Workers

By Yehudit Garmaise 

Gov. Hochul’s considerable efforts to protect New Yorkers from the Omicron variant have recently included securing, from the federal government millions of test kits, an adequate supply of antiviral drugs to match the needs of the state, and 11 additional ambulances to transport patients, however, as the first governor to do so, she has also provided the state’s National Guard members with training to become emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to better assist the state’s overworked healthcare workers.

“Last month, I sent I sent National Guard members into our nursing homes and into our hospitals to relieve the pressure off our incredibly exhausted healthcare workers,” said Gov. Hochul about her creative military deployment. 

Gov. Hochul added, however, that she quickly saw that the volunteers who had medical training were able to help New York’s healthcare workers much more extensively.

“Only the National Guard members who had medical training could really relieve the pressure off our healthcare workers,” said Gov. Hochul, who said that the other National Guard members were only able to help with “non-critical functions.”

“Without medical training, there are limits to what they can do,” said the governor, who said that the National Guard’s EMT training starts this week, “and they will be ready in one month.

“The EMT graduates of the National Guard will be able to assist the state’s healthcare workers much more effectively, and we want to add more people to that army of support.”