| FWIW, government officials admit to the hour-long 911 waits: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/07/19/emergency-manager-sho... > [Gov.] Snyder said it’s been a long period of decline in Detroit, and now is the time to do something about it. With “unacceptable” 58-minute emergency response times, he said the 700,000 residents of Detroit deserve better. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20100916/METRO08/9160409 (2010) > Most shocking, perhaps, occurred when a building collapsed on six firefighters, half of whom were taken to the hospital in squad cars and fire trucks because there were no ambulances on the scene. If that is how people in uniform are treated, imagine what it is like for the average citizen in the dark of night. >> Mack made a claim to Fox 2 News a few weeks ago that the average response time in Detroit for an ambulance to arrive on a 911 call is 12 minutes -- even while admitting that often there are no units available to get to calls. According to that 2004 audit, the two-year average at that time was about 12 minutes. And that was before the city cut its paramedics and emergency medical technicians by nearly 40 percent. As a comparison, the city of Grosse Pointe reports its average ambulance response is five minutes. Dearborn's is four minutes. Warren's is 5:35. In 2005, there were 303 paramedics and EMTs working the streets and the EMS division of the Fire Department had a budget of nearly $25 million. Today there are just 188 paramedics with a budget of nearly $23 million. With that many fewer paramedics, what happened to their estimated $11.5 million in salaries and benefits? |