Wake County Town Could Lose 1 of Its 2 Ambulances

The town of Rolesville could lose one of its two ambulances to help speed up emergency response time in the rest of Wake County.

"This ambulance is idle (more than) 95 percent of the time," Wake County Emergency Medical Services Director Dr. Brent Myers said. "It's too infrequently utilized for us to sponsor in our current system.”

The county's peer-review committee will recommend to the Wake County Board of Commissioners to take the second ambulance out of service in Rolesville. According to the county, it responds to a call every 2.8 days.

Although they admit the call volume for the second ambulance is low, town leaders say 11,000 people are expected to move to the area within the next five years and that the ambulance will ultimately be needed. They have offered to pay the cost of operating the ambulance themselves over the next five years.

"I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it," Rolesville EMS Chief Tina Camo said.

Myers said the concern is not about money, but about putting the resources where they are needed so that everyone in Wake County gets the same level of service.

To that end, EMS is shifting ambulances to high-volume call areas in northeastern Wake County, but Rolesville doesn't fall into that category.

Wake County commissioners will make the final decision during their budget discussions in the next few months.

During peak times, 37 ambulances are in use in Wake County and respond to about 61,000 calls a year. The goal is to respond at the scene within 12 minutes from the time a 911 call is placed.

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I can see why people don't understand why we are taking an ambulance away from a city. And in the worst case senerios, like cardiac arrests, the one ambulance on scene is not alone. They have the fire department to help them out where ever they are needed, including CPR, lifting, and other basic EMS abilities. Two paramedics and two fire fighters on a scene are more then enough to handle the normal cardiac arrest calls.

In response to "dont" talking about green paramedics. They are always paired with an expierenced paramedic. One of the main reasons we have so many openings is because we are adding more positions, not just the turnover rate.

kungfubar
April 8, 2007 11:27 p.m.

Being a resident of Rolesville, I find it very hard to believe that the medical director is saying that the 2nd is only called out every 2.8 days. Where is he getting that number from? That truck is out a lot more often that that!! Having a lot of friends in EMS, I can say that the county is horribly under-staffed; they are constantly pulling units from their stations to go sit in another's territory. That includes the Rolesville truck. So what happens if I or my family need an ambulance and our town truck is in Knightdale? Suffer longer because of an incorrect number made up from some mysterious formula by a paper-pusher who make over $80,000 a year and has an office no where close to Rolesville? Yeah, that's fair.... And rumor has it that the other truck to be taken out of use will be parked behind the station. What possible good will this do?

carealmk
March 21, 2007 12:00 a.m.

I also heard that Rolesville is the fastest or one of the fastest growing towns in North Carolina, so i would think that reasources should be a priority in rolesville, also and again as i said before, the county is not moving this unit(reasource) to another area, they are deleting it. makes no sence to me..but thats politics

klp205
March 17, 2007 12:33 p.m.

Dr. Myers said in the interview, that there was need for ambulances in other areas, the problem with that statement is that the county is not moving a resource, it is deleting a resource. Why are they doing this, even when the town said it would foot the bill for the unit. THis unit has been in rolesville for 11 years. why mess with it now??

klp205
March 17, 2007 12:06 p.m.

I see both sides of this from an emotional level, but from a logical standpoint, you've got to let data drive decisions. How else do you fairly allocate resources in a county this big which has to cost millions to run? Perhaps it's my analytical nature, but I, as someone who lives in the County, am VERY glad that more than emotional, "because it just feels right" decisions aren't deciding when and from where resources come from when when my Mom calls 911.

ncflyguy
March 16, 2007 10:55 a.m.