Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Supervisor warns of EMS crisis, asks city attorney to draft charter amendment setting minimum ambulance standards
Summary
Supervisor Breed told the Board that San Francisco's emergency medical services are in crisis, saying ambulances are often unavailable, response times have worsened and budgeted ambulances were not purchased. She asked the city attorney to draft a charter amendment to set minimum EMS standards for the city.
Supervisor Breed delivered an extended statement to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors saying the city—s emergency medical services (EMS) are in a state of crisis and proposing a charter amendment to require minimum standards for ambulance service.
Breed said EMS—not fires—constitutes over 70 percent of the department—s calls and that the number of "medic-to-follow" incidents, when an ambulance is not available to respond, has increased more than 500 percent since 2008. She cited a recent month in which ambulances took more than 20 minutes to arrive on 374 occasions, and said individual cases included an 87-year-old man who waited…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
