MOORPARK : Ambulance Station Is Open Full Time

Pruner Health Services Inc. has begun to operate its Moorpark ambulance station around the clock, at no cost to the city, company officials said this week.

The Thousand Oaks-based ambulance service, which covers most of Ventura County, began stationing an ambulance in Moorpark for 11 hours each day about a month ago.

The company has now rented an apartment with beds and cooking facilities, which will allow the ambulance staff to put in 24-hour shifts, President Don Pruner said.

Pruner company officials had previously told the City Council that it would cost $77,800 annually to put a full-time ambulance station in the city.

But Pruner said the firm has no plans to begin charging the city for the new station. “We made a business decision,” Pruner said. The Moorpark ambulance station should prove to residents that they do not need paramedics at fire stations to get quicker responses to emergencies, he said.

“We’re on scene usually with the (Fire Department), sometimes before they are,” Pruner said. “So the issue of response times just isn’t there anymore.”

Stationing an ambulance locally has reduced the average time that it takes to respond to emergencies from between eight and 12 minutes to 4.6 minutes, Pruner said. The company previously sent ambulances from its Olsen Road station to Moorpark.

Each ambulance is staffed by a paramedic and a medical technician, Pruner said. About two months ago, the Moorpark City Council asked the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to place firefighters trained as paramedics in the city’s two fire stations.

The city has reserved $125,000 in this year’s budget to pay the county for the service.

City officials said Wednesday that they appreciate Pruner’s action. But they stressed that they remain committed to getting paramedics in the fire stations.