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Mayor says city is working to reduce ambulance response delays as supervisors press for accountability
Summary
Supervisors questioned Mayor Edwin Lee about prolonged ambulance response times and the fire department's preparedness; the mayor outlined short-, medium- and long-term steps including hiring, private ambulance coordination and targeted outreach, but stopped short of personnel action.
Supervisor London Breed on Tuesday pressed Mayor Edwin M. Lee and city managers about a growing crisis in San Francisco’s ambulance response system, saying the Fire Department is out of compliance with its exclusive operating agreement and is failing to meet internal response-time standards.
Breed told the board the city aims to have ambulances on scene of life-threatening emergencies ("code 3") within 10 minutes 90 percent of the time, and that in July and August response times were nearly 50 percent longer; she said there were “374 occasions” in August when it took more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. She also noted the Board has approved funding for 16 new ambulances in recent years that the department has not yet put into service.
Mayor Lee responded…
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