Doctors, nurses, families, and members of the Shallowater community attended their city council meeting Monday night to discuss city council’s vote in favor of turning over their city’s EMS over to UMC.
City council allowed any member of the community to speak during open forum. However, they were unable to discuss the matter because it was not on the evening’s full agenda.
Response time from UMC EMS was one of the worries addressed at the council.
“Their response times can go anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes, anywhere between 15 to 18 minutes up to 29, which is allowed by the county,” said Krystle Garner, an EMT for Shallowater EMS.
Garner said with the removal of other counties EMS stations, they have actually seen an increase in calls last year, responding to 741 incidents.
Eric Finley, a spokesperson for UMC, said if they had to respond to Shallowater, their personnel would be ready.
“If we were to step into that community. We would simply rotate our resources in such a way, maybe add additional vehicles, whatever is needed to ensure response times in those areas,” said Finley.
Finley said EMS is becoming increasingly more expensive over the years.
Citizens also expressed their concerns that the city did not do enough to make people aware of the vote.
“I feel like you should let the community know before its been voted on or discussed or whatever,” said one citizen at the meeting.
After Monday’s meeting, Shallowater City Council released a statement:
I, as mayor of Shallowater, am aware of the concerns of the citizens of Shallowater regarding ambulance service. Please know that as of now, nothing has changed with regard to the provision of ambulance service in Shallowater. Ambulance service continues in Shallowater, and ambulance service will continue to be provided in the future. At this point, conjecture on social media is adding unnecessary worry and concern.
I cannot speak on behalf of the entire council, buy I can say that the council had numerous discussions with regard to the provision of ambulance services. I believe that the council was acting in the best interests of the citizens of Shallowater when it decided to explore other options for hte provision of ambulance services. As of now, I cannot say if or when changes in ambulance services will occur. However, I can say without hesitation that we will continue to act in the best interests of the citizens of Shallowater.
I welcome any citizen of Shallowater to contact me with any questions they may have regarding the city. I also welcome any citizen to attend council meetings and to speak on issues of importance to you.
