County Money For EMS Services Being Cut Off

ATLANTA -- By this time next week if you need an ambulance in Metro Atlanta, prepare yourself for an extended wait. County money that helped fund EMS services is being cut off on July 1, and that will leave residents in Atlanta and south Fulton County waiting for help.

The Fulton County Commission voted last November to cut the $10 million for ambulance service. The impact will be felt most in the city of Atlanta and south Fulton, and patients will wait longer for help.

Grady's ambulance fleet has already shrunk from 39 down to 35 -- and ever since Fulton County voted to cut $10 million dollars, a third of Grady EMS Service's budget, they've been losing worried employees as well, says executive director of Grady's EMS and trauma services, James Bothwell.

"We've lost about 17 percent of our crew members," Bothwell said. "These people are concerned about future of EMS and the city of Atlanta is -- and some have decided to look for employment elsewhere."

Next week, the money from the county goes away, replaced by a longer wait for an ambulance in the city of Atlanta and south Fulton County.

"We have a very strict response time standard that we meet -- a few minutes to get to the scene, but without that funding we're not going to be able to put as many ambulances on the street or personnel that's necessary to serve the public effectively and those response times will go up considerably," Bothwell said.

Fulton officials say response time will go up four minutes on average. Many local physicians have said that's a crucial amount of time during a life threatening situation such as a heart attack or stroke. But the reality is that many patients serviced by these ambulance and paramedics don't have coverage to pay -- which is why the subsidy from the county was needed.

Now time to get funding is running out, and Bothwell says it's the patients who will pay the price.

"If we can get there in a matter of six or seven minutes, we can have a very positive outcome," Bothwell said. "If the same response is 30 minutes, the game's over."

Communities in north Fulton County have negotiated their own contracts with an ambulance service. Grady officials are still hoping to find more funding, but it likely won't come from the city of Atlanta, which is facing its own budget problems. One official said we cannot know the impact until it happens -- until response time and patients suffer.