RIVAL AMBULANCE CLASH

A “hot-headed” volunteer ambulance driver was detained by cops last night after refusing to yield to a city ambulance crew that had arrived first at the Lower East Side home of an Alzheimer’s patient, police said.

The driver, from the Jewish volunteer corps Hatzolah, was hauled off by cops. But he was later sprung after about two dozen supporters, as well as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, rushed to the Pitt Street station house.

“The outcome was totally in our favor,” a man who identified himself as the president of Hatzolah said as he jumped into his car.

Silver said he had rushed to the precinct simply to “help mediate the dispute.”

“It was a jurisdictional dispute,” the state’s most powerful Democrat said. “They all have to work together for the betterment of the people here.”

According to police, the EMS crew was already on the scene when the Hatzolah team pulled up to the Grand Street apartment.

The city crew was assisting the emotionally disturbed woman — who is Jewish, police sources said — when the Hatzolah driver tried to force his way into the apartment.

A cop closed the door on the driver, but the driver stuck his foot inside and demanded to treat the patient, police said.

“The officer again asked him to leave but he didn’t,” said a police spokesman. “He started to leave, but then he stayed in the hallway and started yelling and screaming.”

That’s when the driver — whom a Hatzolah source described as “sometimes a hothead” — was brought to the station house, police said.

“He’s a guy who sometimes causes problems,” the source said.

When the crowd of Hatzolah supporters gathered outside, police said they were questioning the driver only to determine if he was, indeed, a medical technician for the 38-year-old group.

After confronting cops and city paramedics over treatment of a lower Manhattan Alzheimer’s patient, a Jewish ambulance corps brought in a big gun to solve a little dispute last night.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the state’s most powerful Democrat, arrived at the 7th Precinct stationhouse on Pitt St. after the 9 p.m. confrontation.

“I live in the neighborhood, I just wanted to mediate,” Silver said as he left the stationhouse shortly after midnight.

The confrontation inside 575 Grand St. began when a Hatzoloh Emergency Medical Service technician insisted on seeing the sick Jewish woman, whom FDNY paramedics already were treating, sources said. Cops told him to wait, police sources said.

“He was in the apartment, then he was out of the apartment. He was screaming and shouting in the hall,” a source said. Police took the technician to the stationhouse to confirm that he was a member of the well-connected volunteer ambulance corp.

A Hatzoloh source said it was the cops who were belligerent with the technician.

“It was a wonderful result, the outcome was totally in our favor,” said a Hatzoloh spokesman who refused to give his name.

A member of a volunteer ambulance corps was taken into custody by police Monday night after he interfered with a response to an emotionally disturbed elderly woman in a Lower East Side apartment, a police source said.

According to the source, the ambulance service, known as Hatzolah, arrived at 575 Grand St. about 7:55 p.m. in response to a woman acting irrationally, possibly suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Police officers, who were also called to the scene along with paramedics from the fire department, told the members of the ambulance corps that they were handling the situation.

At that point, one of the members of the Hatzolah ambulance became “extremely indignant” and demanded to attend to the patient, a police source said.

During the confrontation, one of the fire-department paramedics on the scene called and reported that “Hatzolah is giving the unit a problem about transport.”

Despite repeated requests to leave, the Hatzolah member allegedly refused. At one point, he placed his foot in the door, preventing officers from closing it, according to the police source.

The Hatzolah member, whose name was not released, was taken into custody and moved to the nearby Seventh Precinct. Initially, it appeared the man was going to face charges of disorderly conduct, but after several hours of questioning, no charges or summonses were issued. The matter remained under investigation.

Members of the Hatzolah, which is run by Orthodox Jews, put out a call requesting all available members to respond to the precinct.

Paramedics from the fire department were also inside the apartment when the dispute happened.

A fire department EMS “boss,” a lieutenant, had to respond to the scene, which is unusual for such a routine job.

Eventually, fire department paramedics transported the patient, whose identity was not released by authorities, to Bellevue Hospital Center.