Emergency response times raised

ST. PETERSBURG - Pinellas County Commissioners have set a new standard time for delivering emergency medical services: it is now seven and a half minutes. It has been raised from just under five minutes.

More than 200 firefighter-paramedics and emergency medical technicians filled the commission chambers, a large conference room on another floor and the courthouse lobby and watched the hours-long debate.

"They want to be informed," paramedic Ken Liebich explained.

They watched county managers explain how millions of dollars can be saved by eliminating most of the emergency medical trucks and cutting the number of paramedics subsidized by the county. The county collects a special property tax for emergency medical services and pays 19 fire departments to be first responders.

Currently, that delivers help to a patient in under five minutes. But county administrator Robert LaSala argued for the change.

"Seven and a half minutes, 90 percent of the time, is the gold standard in the United States, and that ought to be carved in stone, and really guide and direct everything we do," LaSala said.

Under the county's new plan, paramedics will ride on fire trucks paid for by cities and fire districts. Fire officials claim that will reduce responses to fires as well.

"It absolutely will cut service," said St. Petersburg Fire Chief James Large. "I don't know how we can stand here and say it won't cut service. When you have an engine and a rescue, and you're now asking one unit to do what both of those units were doing, it's going to impact service."

But some commissioners think the county has been indirectly subsidizing fire services and that can no longer be afforded.

"When money was flowing and property values were escalating every year, it was easy just to keep everybody happy. And we can't do it anymore" said Commissioner Susan Latvala.
Now that the standard has been set, compensations to fire departments will be cut, not right away, but by October.