Opinion: San Diego's poor ambulance service needs prompt attention as a matter of life and death [Opinion]
to change ambulance service providers for the first time in 23 years, switching from American Medical Response, the largest U.S. provider, to Falck, a Danish-based company that is the world’s largest. Elected leaders considered the issue at length before selecting Falck, which promised to improve service after years of local complaints about AMR. Falck won support from Fire Chief Colin Stowell, the city firefighters union and numerous community leaders.
It’s been all downhill ever since. The Falck decision joins the long list of debacles overseen by city leaders since theirto intentionally underfund pension contributions. The company has never lived up to promises to add resources and improve response times and was fined $900,000 by the city over its poor service in July, August and September. Similar sanctions loom for Falck’s continued woes in October, November and December..
. The second is bringing in a second ambulance contractor to improve services. Underscoring this fiasco, AMR is eager to fill that role.— was taken seriously enough last spring that Mayor Todd Gloria authorized hiring a consultant to analyze the possibility and report back within six months. But the report has never been made public, suggesting the idea has lost favor.
It’s not clear if poor vetting led to the Falck fiasco. Yet city leaders must learn from it and figure out how to ensure contractors on vital services keep their promises. The need for prompt ambulance responses is literally a matter of life and death.
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