During the coronavirus pandemic, the Bladen County EMS department has been in charge of transporting COVID-19 patients to medical treatments, assisting with an increased amount of overdoses and trauma rescues, according to Bladen County EMS Director, David Howell, Jr. The EMS department has seen an estimated one percent increase in emergency calls this year.
Although there is an increase in EMS calls, some of the department’s ambulances are high mileage, and one recently left EMS personnel on the roadside.
“COVID-19 has really put a spin on it, a little bit because we were helping the hospital doing COVID-19 transport. We were transporting patients that were COVID-19 positive to dialysis in Cumberland County,” Howell explained.
He continued, “We have seen more trauma, unfortunately, with the shootings in the area. We’ve seen more OD’s (overdoses), than historically, over last year, during this COVID-19 time period.”
Howell confirmed the EMS department is supplied with Personal Protective Equipment; however, there is a need for dependable ambulances.
The ambulance that left the crew on the side of the road in recent weeks is at the county maintenance shop. It is a 2014 unit with a 2006 remounted box(refurbished). It has 223 thousand miles on it. Howell explained the unit broke down after a patient was dropped off at a medical facility. The ambulance at the shop is not the only unit with high mileage.
“Right now, our fleet has 11 ambulances. Ideally, 12 is what we really need. My concern is some of our older ambulances are high mileage.” Howell explained.
Howell said he requests funding for a new ambulance, and one refurbished from the Bladen County Board of Commissioners each year. Last year the EMS department received funding for a refurbished ambulance.
The reason Howell requests funding from the board of commissioners for one new ambulance and one refurbished ambulance each year is for better maintenance costs and reliability of the units.
Howell said, “We did receive approval for 141 thousand dollars for one new unit this year.” He said he is currently searching for a quality ambulance in the price range of the approved funding amount.
“It is a little bit tight,” Howell stated about the approved funding and the costs of a new ambulance.
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners has met this month about the county budget and will meet again tonight. The new fiscal year budget has not been officially approved at this time.
Related articles:
https://bladencounty.org/bladen-country-board-of-commissioners-proposed-agenda/
https://bladencounty.org/bladen-county-commission-discuss-proposed-budget/
https://bladencounty.org/bladen-county-citizens-have-opportunity-to-voice-opinion-on-budget/
https://bladencounty.org/county-calls-special-meeting-for-the-budget/
About Author
