FL EMS Agency Seeks to Buy Three Ambulances with COVID Funds

PANAMA CITY, FL—The Bay County Commission will vote Tuesday on whether to approve the purchase of three new ambulances using federal COVID-19 aid money.

Bay County Emergency Medical Services runs an average of 90 emergency responses and transport per 24-hour period. The volume of calls during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased by 19.5%, which has increased wear and tear on the ambulances, officials said.

The wear and tear is the main reason the Bay County Emergency Services Department is seeking CARES Act funds to purchase more ambulances.

"We've got some of our 2018 units that are approaching 100,000 miles and those units never leave the county," said Brad Monroe, deputy chief of emergency services of Bay County. "We have five to seven units, sometimes eight, that are in service all the time, and we only have about 16 ambulances available to us at any time."

The commission already approved spending $650,000 to purchase three additional ambulances under the FY2021 budget. The latest three ambulances under the CARES Act funding would cost a total of $631,974.11.

The pandemic protocols EMS has had to enact, such as decontamination, caused longer turnover. As a result, according to Monroe, they were forced to use some of their reserve ambulances to keep enough of them on the road.

Monroe added that the additional ambulances will help them on top of their regular replacement schedule.

"It'll give us an opportunity to replace some of the older units that we've basically worn out over the course of the year," Monroe said. "They would have otherwise been placed into reserve and eventually gotten rid of."

County Commission Vice Chairman Tommy Hamm said after the previous meeting that commissioners were looking to extend the deadline for the CARES Act funding into next year. As of now, Dec. 31 is the deadline to distribute the $30 million the county has received.

Monroe said he's hoping commissioners are able to extend the deadline because they then could look at applying for funds to replace more ambulances. He said Bay County has been hit hard by COVID-19, based on the number of patients transported to hospitals.

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