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Warwick EMS warns mutual-aid gaps are straining local coverage
Summary
Rob Walker, chief and executive director of Warwick Community Ambulance Association, told Lititz Borough Council that routine mutual‑aid requests have surged, citing 216 outside responses since March 1 and saying Pennsylvania rules require available ambulances to accept dispatches.
Rob Walker, chief and executive director of Warwick Community Ambulance Association, told Lititz Borough Council on June 24 that growing mutual‑aid demands have put the service under sustained strain and reduced local coverage.
Walker said the association responds to just over 5,000 calls annually with about 50 employees and that since March 1 his crews have answered 216 calls outside their primary service area. “We physically responded as of today to 216 of them,” he said, adding that roughly 70 of those outside calls resulted in patient transports that at times last hours and remove an ambulance from its home district.
The issue matters because Pennsylvania law limits when an EMS provider may decline a dispatch, Walker said. “We can’t say no…
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