Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Friendship Ambulance has 5th anniversary
The Friendship Ambulance sub-station is observing its fifth year of service to Spring City and East Vincent.
Six years ago, a stroke victim in the borough would have waited as long as six minutes before the nearest ambulance arrived to provide emergency medical assistance – a short time period, but one long enough to spell the difference between life and death.
Today, that response time has been cut in half, thanks to the opening by Friendship Ambulance, a division of Royersford Fire Department, of a sub-station at the Liberty Steam Fire Co. No. 1 on Main Street. This year the ambulance squad is observing its fifth anniversary of service to the 10,000 residents of Spring City Borough and East Vincent Township.
The creation of the sub-station came about through a collaboration of Spring City Borough, East Vincent Township and Friendship Ambulance, explained Lenny Brown, paramedic and public information officer for Friendship Ambulance. Officials of the two municipalities “approached us to see if we would be interested in being their primary ambulance service provider,” he recalled.
The first year Friendship Ambulance was in Spring City, they responded to 900 calls. Today, that number has increased 30 percent to 1,200 calls annually. “One of the reasons the call volume spiked,” said Brown, “is the increase in the area’s older population, who are more susceptible to cardiac, respiratory, strokes, diabetic and various other medical emergencies.”
Another reason for the upswing in calls is the growth in the area’s housing developments and commercial establishments, Brown pointed out. The third reason is the increase in mutual aid calls, situations in which Friendship Ambulance is summoned to neighboring communities whose own ambulances are tied up.
It is fortunate that the Friendship Ambulance substation is located in the same building with Liberty Steam Fire Co., Brown added. “We have a good working relationship
with them,” he said.
It’s of particular value on those occasions where the skills of fire company personnel are needed, such as vehicle rescues, building fires, hazardous materials incidents and some medical emergencies. “On drill nights, when there are enough volunteer firefighters
at Liberty Steam, we familiarize them where our medical equipment is stored on the ambulance,” Brown continued. “Should the need arise on the scene, all I have to do is say ‘Spike, Roger or whoever, could you please go to the ambulance and get the automated external defibrillator?’”