$5M for faster EMS times

AFTER EMS response times for life-threatening emergencies jumped by more than 20 seconds last year, the FDNY plans to spend $5 million on two pilot programs to handle what it calls a record number of emergency calls.

Starting this summer, the FDNY plans to use 10 “fly cars” — fire supervisor SUVs carrying a paramedic — to emergencies in the Bronx ahead of ambulances, fire officials told the Daily News on Monday.

The Fire Department also plans to send out a “tactical response” group of 10 additional basic life support tours — ambulance teams staffed by EMTs, not paramedics — to neighborhoods in the Bronx experiencing the highest call volume.

FDNY ambulances took an average 7 minutes and 13 seconds to respond to lifethreatening emergencies, and an average 9 minutes, 59 seconds, to respond to all calls last year. That’s up from 6 minutes, 50 seconds for grave emergencies and 9 minutes, 23 seconds, for all calls in 2014.

The department’s slowest response times were in the Bronx, stats show.

John Annese