Written by Tanya Terry, with photos by Tanya Terry
On average, Flint residents who have called 911 recently have waited about 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. But now that the City of Flint is bringing back its own ambulance service dedicated to city residents, that situation is expected to improve drastically.
4th Ward City Councilwoman Judy Priestley told the Courier her neighbor died of a drug overdose.
“This might have saved his life,” she added. “It’s so important to save lives. I wasn’t necessarily in favor of spending money and putting our resources towards it. But the more I thought about it, one life saved is worth the cost of an ambulance. I just feel that life is more important than money. Hopefully, we can get more money for another ambulance. But we’ve got to test it out firs,t and do a trial run, and look at the stats. But hopefully, it will make a difference!”
Flint Fire Chief Theron Wiggins said when crews wait 30 minutes to an hour for an ambulance to arrive on scene it is “unacceptable.” Wiggins said he knows the new ambulance service is going to save lives.
A new ambulance will be based at the Joe Davis Jr. Fire Department Headquarters at 310 E. Fifth Street near the downtown area.
Due to budget cuts, Flint’s ambulance service was discontinued over 20 years ago. The city has been using private companies to pick up its emergency calls.
The Flint City Council approved purchasing an ambulance on March 25. That ambulance arrived last month, in April.
Neeley said the goal is to have four ambulances within the city, which he said would be a full fleet. The ambulances, which would cost about $200,00 each, would be paid for by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars and opioid lawsuit settlement money.
The first ambulance is expected to be in service by July. This will be possible pending the city receiving an OK from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and Genesee County Medical Control Authority, which will be considering an application in June.
“I made it a priority because I know this is a priority to everyone who dials 911 that’s in trauma,” said Mayor Sheldon Neeley. “It’s an emergency situation for them. So it became an emergency situation for us.”
