Ambulance to the rescue in Eastie
The city added a second ambulance to East Boston after wait times for toppriority calls there spiked to 8 minutes, a full 2 minutes more than the department’s target for critical emergencies.
Boston EMS chief Jim Hooley said the new ambulance has been staffed day and evenings since March 12.
Call times in East Boston for reports of heart attacks, difficulty breathing, “man down” or other critical incidents had jumped to
8 minutes, while the goal for the top-priority incidents is 6 minutes, Hooley said.
Citywide, the response time to priority 1 incidents hit 6.4 minutes, up slightly from 6.3 minutes.
The city said the response time had deteriorated as more and more people packed into Boston but the budget for emergency response had not grown in tandem. Boston EMS responded to 7,533 calls in East Boston in 2017, a 5 percent increase from 2016. In all, Boston EMS went to 126,562 calls, an uptick of 0.8 percent.
When East Boston had one ambulance in its isolated neighborhood, Boston EMS would dispatch a backup unit to the neighborhood from downtown, Charlestown, South Boston or another nearby district. Hooley said as the calls citywide increase, “there were times the backup truck would be coming from more of a distance” or not available at all.
The new East Boston ambulance will be housed at a Massport-run facility.
In addition to the ambulance, the city’s new budget will invest $1.3 million in training 20 new EMTs to begin in July. In 2017, the city had 281 EMTs, 51 paramedics and 43 supervisors and command staff. Prior to the new ambulance, Boston EMS had 26 ambulances citywide.