BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Common Council President Chris Scanlon introduced a resolution Tuesday that explores the idea of the City of Buffalo having its own EMS service within the Buffalo Fire Department.
"I think at the very least we can take a look at it," Scanlon said.
Scanlon said this is a conversation the city has been having for quite some time.
However, the conversation heated up after Fillmore District Council member Mitch Nowakowski received complaints about AMR response times.
The 7 News I-Team has obtained a letter sent to AMR, by Buffalo Common Councilman Mitch Nowakowski, explaining some people in his district have been left "without proper care for over an hour or no service at all."
During Tuesday's special session — other Council members shared concerns about AMR from people living in their specific districts.
"There is a problem. I don't know if it's with AMR, I don't know if it's with 911 but there's no resident in the city of Buffalo that should have to sit there for two hours waiting for a rescue squad," Council member Joseph Golombek said.
"It took five hours to get an ambulance after her mother had a heart attack. Assuming all of that is true, that's certainly unacceptable," Council member Joel Feroleto said.
Scanlon's resolution requests:
- Common Council to work with the Department of Public Works and BFD to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study to establish a City of Buffalo EMS ambulance study
- An evaluation of cost and savings with this service and a report of EMS models
- These findings and recommendations should be presented to CC within 180 of adopting the resolution as well as recommendation for the next steps
"It's a clear indication that we want to provide the very best service possible, and whatever that might look like and that's what I'm prepared to do," Scanlon said.
Although Mayor Byron Brown said he was unaware of concerns surrounding AMR's response times, I asked him about the possibility of the city establishing its own ambulance corps.
"My administration is always open to looking at ways to improve the delivery of services for our residents, looking at ways to reduce costs of providing services to our residents, so we think that that is a helpful review," Brown said.
AMR is being called to testify at a common council meeting in September. An AMR spokesperson said they're looking forward to this discussion.
AMR provided the following statement:
American Medical Response (AMR) is currently assessing the concerns raised by Councilman Nowakowski and Common Council President Chris Scanlon. In the spirit of transparency, we would like to provide an update on the operational status of AMR Western New York.
While the exclusive operating agreement has ended between the City of Buffalo and AMR Western New York, we continue to provide vital emergency medical services to the city we call home. We do respect the request for proposal (RFP) process, which is why we submitted a response to the city’s RFP shortly after it was distributed in August 2021. Although the process was halted, AMR Western New York continues to serve our community in times of need.
AMR Western New York prioritizes responding to high-acuity calls, such as traumatic injuries and cardiac arrests, and believes our response times to these calls fall within industry standards.
Due to prioritizing the most severe cases, lower acuity calls may result in longer response times. AMR Western New York remains committed to the City of Buffalo and continues to make extensive investments in our staff and infrastructure such as development and recruiting programs to respond to a personnel shortage affecting EMS systems nationally.
These include our award-winning Earn While You Learn program and funding paramedic education and training through Erie Community College (ECC). In fact, 17 new Paramedics are set to graduate from the ECC program in August, which will strengthen our ability to continue to meet the emergency medical needs of Buffalo.
AMR Western New York invests in Buffalo because it is our community. Our first responders not only work here, but they live here, and they continually make sacrifices to serve the people they love.
AMR Western New York remains dedicated to collaborating with city leadership, allied agencies and healthcare facilities to continue to improve EMS services to the City of Buffalo. We look forward to continuing this conversation and speaking with the Buffalo Common Council Finance Committee in September.
Scanlon joined Voices last week to discuss the possibility. You can watch the full conversation below.
