By Terry Schrimscher, For the Tribune
SPRINGVILLE – The Springville Council reopened discussion about public ambulance service Monday night, April 3. Most of the discussion took place in the work session prior to the regular meeting. During the session, the Council took time to address misinformation on social media platforms and discussed ongoing concerns about ambulance response times in the city.
As first reported in The Trussville Tribune in August of last year, the Council has been trying to find a solution for long wait times for ambulance services. Some residents in need of care have complained of waits as long as two or three hours.
After hearing details of another example of a long wait, this time for a child needing care, members of the Council spoke up about two previous decisions against a contract that would have made an ambulance available for the city to use in critical situations.
The Council voted against leasing a reserve ambulance from Regional Paramedical Services (RPS) in February and asked Fire Chief Richard Harvey to clarify terms of the contract at that time. Harvey returned to the Council with updated terms, but the measure was again defeated at the March 20 meeting.
Council members Toles and Phillips voted with the mayor in favor of leasing the ambulance from RPS at the March 20 meeting. Members Vinson, Hennings, Walker, Parker and Reaves voted against the measure.
“I’d like to believe, I truly believe, that we all have the best intentions and our communities at heart,” said Mayor Dave Thomas. “That said, I was a little confused two weeks ago. I had assured Richard that he had overcome all of the objections so it should have been, what I felt, a unanimous vote in favor of, but it didn’t go that way.
“So, tonight I’d like to take the opportunity in this work session to further discuss what other objections or concerns does the Council have,” Thomas added.
“We have had ambulances before and got rid of them for some reasons,” said Councilmember Marshall Parker. “I think it goes back to the situation that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. I’m for it if we can do something that works. We can’t have our paramedics sitting down there in Birmingham waiting to unload.”
One concern raised by members of the Council was wall time. This is the typical wait time a responder must spend at the hospital after transporting a person to the emergency room. By law, the responders or ambulance crew providing transportation must wait with the ambulance patient until the person is officially admitted to the hospital as a patient.
Speaking to The Trussville Tribune, Harvey said the concerns over wall time are not applicable to the discussion in Springville.
“I don’t even feel like that’s an issue because the patients we’re going to be transporting are going to be critical patients that will not wait on a wall,” said Harvey. “The issues the private ambulance services are having, we’re not going to have those same issues.”
In previous meetings, Harvey has stated the city’s ambulance would only be used a few times a year to transport critical patients who cannot wait for care from a private company.
“I don’t think us having our own ambulance is a long-term solution,” said councilmember Austin Phillips. “I don’t think that’s what we need over an extended period of time. We don’t have the revenue to be able to take care of that.”
Phillips voted against the contract in February, but voted in favor of the measure in March after Harvey addressed his concerns. He said he hoped St. Clair County could work to find a long-term solution.
Councilmember Tim Walker asked City Attorney James Hill about the liabilities involved with determining whether a patient is in need of critical care.
“The issue of liability is not just an issue of insurance,” Hill said. “The risk is, I think, what councilman Walker just alluded to and that is the person making the decisions. That’s the additional area of risk involved with medical care.”
Parker joined with other members of the council in expressing concern over misinformation being spread about the decision on social media.
It went out on social media that they just wanted to station an ambulance over here,” Parker said. “Misinformation that went out on social media just trashed us.” Members of the council are currently prohibited from engaging in discussion about city business on social media.
The Council asked Hill to prepare an agreement to lease the ambulance for a trial period with the understanding that the agreement can be terminated at any time. The Council, once approved, would review the agreement and evaluate the program after six months.
“I’m glad they’re giving it a six-month trial period because I don’t think a lot of their concerns are applicable,” Harvey said.
In other business, the Council:
- Established a Back To School sales tax holiday for July 21-23, 2023.
- Expanded Park Board membership to have up to nine members.
- Approved $1548 for fire sprinkler inspections
- Appointed Adam Lansdon and Jeremy Steele to the park board.
Chief Wayne Walton delivered a quarterly update for the Springville Police Department. He said the department answered 586 calls for service in January, 478 in February and 606 in March for a total of 1670 calls in the first quarter of 2023.
The next meeting of the Springville City Council will be held at 6 p.m. on April 17 with a work session at 5:30 p.m.