‘AMR’s response is poor’; Buffalo City Council member wants answers from city’s ambulance service

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo’s only ambulance service is drawing anger from those who need its services, according to City Councilman Mitch Nowakowski.

“I’ve heard everything from non-existent response times, meaning no ambulances showed up or response times were delayed by over an hour,” Nowakowski said. “If you have a medical emergency and you call 911, you expect someone to show up to respond to your medical emergency.”

Nowakowski sent a letter to the city council asking officials from American Medical Response (AMR). The council member wants AMR officials to attend a finance committee meeting in September to address various concerns.

“We really need to get to the heart of the problem: why the AMR response is so poor or not showing up at all,” Nowakowski said.

Besides concerns about response time, AMR’s contract with the city is a topic Nowakowski wants to address with the company.

“AMR was actually operating under an expired, old contract from 2021,” Nowakowski said. “So once we saw that, our staff was able to dig deeper, I realized there was something else going on here.”

Regarding questions about response time, Nowakowski said he wants the City Council to explore all options, including a city-operated ambulance service.

“I think there’s a lot to discuss,” Nowkowski said. “I think we’re going to start seeing council members ask, ‘What if we had our own department?’”

Over the past year, Erie and Niagara counties have established their own ambulance services to fill gaps in emergency response.

Erie County spent about $4.6 million to establish the service and is expected to spend $2 million annually to maintain the service.

“I think it’s something we can’t ignore,” Nowakowski said. “We really need to emphasize certain points, because people deserve to feel safe, but ultimately they deserve to be helped in a timely manner.”

An AMR spokesperson issued the following statement:

“While the exclusive operating agreement between the City of Buffalo and AMR Western New York has ended, we continue to provide essential emergency medical services to the city we call home. We respect the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, which is why we submitted a response to the City’s RFP shortly after it was issued in August 2021. While the process has been paused, AMR Western New York continues to serve our community in times of need.

AMR Western New York prioritizes responding to high-emergency calls, such as traumatic injuries and cardiac arrests, and believes our response times to these calls are in line with industry standards.

Due to the priority given to the most serious cases, lower acuity calls may result in longer response times. AMR Western New York remains committed to the City of Buffalo and continues to make significant investments in our people and infrastructure, such as development and recruitment programs, to address a staffing shortage impacting EMS systems nationwide.

These include our award-winning “Earn While You Learn” program and funding for EMT education and training through Erie Community College (ECC). In fact, 17 new EMTs are expected to graduate from the ECC program in August, strengthening our ability to continue to meet Buffalo’s emergency medical needs.

AMR Western New York invests in Buffalo because it is our community. Our first responders not only work here, they live here and continually make sacrifices to serve the people they love.

AMR Western New York remains committed to working with city leaders, allied agencies and healthcare facilities to continue to improve EMS services in the City of Buffalo. We look forward to continuing this conversation and meeting with the Buffalo City Council Finance Committee in September.