The lack of volunteer emergency medical technicians and paramedics in Erie County has resulted in such poorly staffed rural ambulance services that mutual aid requests from neighboring towns, once reserved for mass casualties and other major incidents, are now being made for routine calls.
Fire and rescue personnel who have seen their ranks thin from one generation to the next say that’s not sustainable.
“There were times, especially when I was chief, I was scared,” said Geoffrey Hack, supervisor and former fire chief for the Town of Holland, which like many rural communities receives no service from commercial ambulance companies.
To help alleviate the shortage, Erie County government is getting into the ambulance business.
The county has purchased five ambulances, painted in a distinctive blue, orange, white and yellow. The first one, being housed at the Colden Volunteer Fire Company, goes into service on Monday, along with a “fly car” that can transport emergency medical personnel and equipment but can’t transport patients.
The plan is to have county ambulances serve as backup in the towns of Aurora, Wales, Eden, Boston, Colden, Holland, Collins and North Collins.
All five ambulances should be online by the end of the year, said Greg Gill, deputy commissioner of the county’s Emergency Medical Services Division.
The county-sponsored ambulance service is not a cheap proposition.
When County Executive Mark Poloncarz first announced plans to create an ambulance service in April, the county estimated it would cost $4.67 million in startup costs, the construction of an ambulance base office, and first-year operating costs. The service is estimated to cost $2 million per year going forward, though that cost may be partially offset by insurance reimbursements.
Poloncarz said he didn’t want county residents to be at risk of dying because of ambulance service wait times, particularly in sparsely populated rural areas, where travel times…
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