ORANGE : Fire Chief Wants City to Buy 4 Ambulances

Saying they can respond to medical emergencies faster and more efficiently than private companies, the city’s Fire Department is proposing to offer local ambulance service.

Fire Chief David L. Rudat has proposed that the city buy four ambulances, hire six additional firefighters and create a “single-tier” emergency response system.

“We can do this service better and more quickly,” Rudat said. “Because it’s public safety and the public relies on it, we should do it.”

But the two private ambulance companies that now serve the city are not happy about that idea and say they will lobby City Council members to block the plan.

“We see this as an encroachment on private enterprise,” said Stephen R. Sheldon, a consultant for CareLine California, an ambulance company based in Santa Ana. “Their cost of running the service is grossly underestimated.”

Rudat says his plan, however, would mean a 42% decrease in response time for critically ill patients but would have little or no effect on his department’s $12-million budget. The initial cost of $250,000 for the ambulances would be recouped within the first year through subscription fees, he said.

The department’s 27 paramedics provide basic and advanced life support to stabilize the injured or sick, then call private ambulances to transport them to hospitals.

The $36 annual fee that the city’s 9,000 subscribers currently pay would not increase under the plan, he said.

Non-subscriber paramedic users now pay $250 for Fire Department services plus ambulance transport fees of $250 or more.

The transport fees, which now go to the private companies, would be paid to the city through insurance coverage, Medicare and subscription fees, Rudat said.

Council members have agreed to meet with representatives of the private companies Tuesday.