Excerpts from foxillinois.com:
The new mayor of Springfield is looking into possibly creating a citywide ambulance service because these are services taxpayers pay for, so the city must provide them.
The mayor said instead of fighting fires, firefighters are providing medical care, and that at least 10 times a month a firefighter has to give medical care because there were no ALS providers on the ambulance, just BLS.
#1 by Mike on May 24, 2023 - 11:16 AM
Dan you bring up some valid points but also SFD has its own paramedics already and runs ALS fire companies. The issue is the ambulances aren’t always available or there is a very long wait time. Yes there is start up costs but I’m sure people would be ok with having dedicated SFD ambulances instead of an unreliable service they have now.
#2 by Dan on May 24, 2023 - 12:30 AM
The mayor is ignorant.
To start up an ambulance service, you need to purchase the equipment, hire so many more staff, pay more insurance,and training, hiring at least 1 chief to supervise, hire a medical director, billing people etc.
Then how many people who don’t have insurance will pay their bills and the very low Medicare reimbursement rates.
Just ignorant.