Sacramento wants to hire privately owned ambulances to improve 911 response times
SACRAMENTO — Sacramento's emergency medical system is overwhelmed with patients.
Captain Justin Sylvia with the Sacramento Fire Department said its 18 current ambulances are often busy transporting a patient or at the hospital.
"It happens on a daily basis, to be honest with you. We're in drawdown where we just have a few ambulances left in the entire county," he said.
EMS officials say too many people are calling 911 when it's not a serious medical emergency.
Now, the City of Sacramento is turning to the private sector for help. They want to add four new ambulances operated by the company Medic Ambulance, but these new units won't be allowed to provide the same level of care.
"They're just going to be doing basic life support issues with just EMTs, not the advanced life support like you would get with a paramedic unit like we currently have on the streets," Sylvia said.
The goal is to have the private medics respond to 911 calls that are not life-threatening and free up existing ambulances for critical incidents like car crashes, heart attacks, and violent crimes.
The private ambulances are also less expensive to staff.
"It does come down to cost," Sylvia said. "Paramedics have more advanced training so they are a higher paid employee."
The city says this new partnership will still provide prompt help to people with basic medical needs, and firefighters with advanced medical skills will still respond to all calls and can travel with the patient if their condition worsens.
"We do not want to compromise care whatsoever," Sylvia said. "That's the last thing we want to do."
The union representing Sacramento firefighters and paramedics says it also supports this new plan. Sacramento city leaders are scheduled to vote on this new partnership at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
