PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, paramedics in the Philadelphia suburbs are in a situation they rarely see.
Lenny Brown, who is a lieutenant at Good Fellowship Ambulance in West Chester and PIO at Royersford Fire Department in Montgomery County, said medics now are in a position where local hospitals are on divert, forcing them to take patients further away.
"Typically, a general EMS call in the suburbs should take 45 minutes to an hour. And that includes someone calling 911, being dispatched, meeting up with the patient, figuring out what is going on, taking them and then going and returning available. When we have to drive to further hospitals, that call that typically takes 45 minutes to an hour may increase to an hour and a half to two hours or longer."
Brown said the system and medics are strained.
"EMS is stretched thin typically every day of the week as it is, but just adding that additional time disinfecting the ambulance or the going to hospitals that we typically wouldn't go to, it is stretched even more thin,” he said.
And this causes a chain reaction, where other medics have to step in and cover for one another.
Brown said supporting your local ambulance is important and suggests you take a close look at the envelopes you receive in the mail. You never know when you will need help, and by becoming a member, they will accept whatever your insurance offers without billing you for additional costs.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed Lenny Brown as Chester County public information officer.