Walsh Proposes More Funds For Boston EMS In City Budget

BOSTON (CBS) -- In his city budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, Mayor Marty Walsh wants to boost the budget for Boston Emergency Medical Services by about $3 million in order to keep up with the city's growth.

"We have more people living in the city of Boston," Walsh recently told Dan Rea on WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Nightside. "So what we did was, we bought ten new ambulances to add to our fleet, so we can have more response out there, and also we're putting on more technicians, EMTs."

Those ten new ambulances would increase the city's fleet to fifty.

Boston's population has grown over the past few years, but Walsh said the city's emergency response capability hasn't.

"As our city grows, we need to make sure we have state of the art equipment, because you don't know what the situation is, and you want to make sure that, whether it's an ambulance or a firefighter or a police officer, you want to make sure they have the equipment they need to respond appropriately," Walsh said.

The $3 million would be a six percent increase over the city's current EMS budget.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports

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