Mayor Bill de Blasio stressed his commitment to reducing ambulance response times on Thursday,one day after a WNYC report on how long people with a medical emergency have to wait.
In 2014, a person with a life threatening medical emergency waited an average of 9 minutes and 13 seconds for an ambulance in 2014. The city added $20 million to this year’s budget to increase ambulance tours and emergency medical dispatchers.“We added the money because we weren’t convinced, and ” de Blasio said.
The return on that investment remains unclear. The average wait is now 9 minutes and 22 seconds — nine seconds longer than final year.
The mayor said until response timesare consistently lower,there will be a conversation every budget cycle to determine if the Fire Department, which includes Emergency Medical Services, or needs more resources.If we ever believe we need more,” said de Blasio, “it will be one of our highest priorities.”
Source: wnyc.org