Pa. Council Member Pens Letter Asking Mayor to Reconsider Ambulance Changes

April 12--WILKES-BARRE -- Wilkes-Barre Council Chairman Bill Barrett has a message for Mayor Tony George: Don't make changes to the city-run ambulance service.

Barrett on Monday sent a letter to the editor praising the current operation, saying there is no need to replace it with a for-profit enterprise.

The Citizens' Voice revealed in Saturday's edition that George sought proposals from at least two companies -- Trans-Med Ambulance and Commonwealth Health Emergency Medical Services -- to take over ambulance service in the city.

"I am certain that with over 7,500 responses a year, there are very few families in the city that have not been touched by our paramedics in one way or another, whether it was a family medical emergency, a vehicle accident, a fire or any other emergency," Barrett wrote. "Our highly trained and experienced paramedics, who work side by side with our firefighters each and every day, are an integral and very important part of our overall emergency response system and deserve nothing less than our complete support."

George recently decided to scrap a 4 1/2 -year-old mutual aid pact with neighboring non-profit ambulance services in Hanover Township, Kingston and Plains Township. He named Trans-Med as the primary backup service replacing them.

The mayor recently confirmed he was open to consideration of going a step further by replacing the city-run ambulance with a private company.

Barrett noted that city council is opposed to the proposed changes, which Barrett said were a step backward.

"... We need to continue to develop new ways to improve inter-governmental cooperation, not dismantle a system that has proven itself time and time again over the years," Barrett said.

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

Copyright 2016 - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.