Ambulance response times in NYC before city council: "A huge crisis in EMS," union says

A New York City Council hearing on Tuesday focused on ambulance response times in the five boroughs as concerns about delays grow.

The Committee on Fire and Emergency Management and the Committee on Hospitals held the joint oversight hearing.

Lawmakers looked at disparities in borough-specific response times. They also got information from the FDNY about allocation of EMS resources for ambulance availability and paramedic staffing. 

Representatives from the FDNY, NYC Health + Hospitals Emergency Management and members of the public testified. 

Many say delays in ambulances are due to staff shortages, closures of hospitals and a growing number of patients with complex needs.

Michael Greco, the president of a union representing EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors, said there has been an "insane jump in response times over the past 10 years."

"Currently, we're responding to cardiac arrests north of 14 minutes, so it's a huge crisis in EMS," he said. "If we had a system that responded to every 911 call in a seven or eight-minute response time, we would be saving hundreds of lives a year, and that's what we're trying to make people understand." 

Vincent Variale, the president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union, also weighed in.

"We need support and funding from the mayor's office and city council to provide the funding needed to get the people on the job to get the staffing that's needed," Variale said.

During the hearing, city officials also considered legislation about emergency notifications. If passed, it would require the city's emergency management to issue notifications each time FDNY-EMS has more than 25 pending ambulance dispatches.