Council approval addresses ambulance shortage

The Idaho Falls City Council approved an ambulance contract with Bonneville County Thursday. Council member Sharon Parry was the only nay voter. The contract will not only change how ambulance service is funded, but it will address an ambulance shortage that has weighed on the county for years.

“It’s been 20 years since we’ve increased any ambulances in our Idaho Falls fleet,” said Idaho Falls Fire Chief Dave Hanneman. “In that time frame, we’ve almost seen a 100 percent increase in calls. It’s gone up that much.”

Hanneman said the department expects 9,400 calls this year. Previously, an increase in calls has at times left ambulance crews at full capacity. The department has to pull staff off of fire trucks in order to dispatch another ambulance, which happens twice daily on average.

IFFD said the $2.3 million contract with Bonneville County will help fund service in the Swan Valley area, which is 1.5 percent of the department’s ambulance calls.

“With this agreement, we’ll be able to maintain the high level of service up in Swan Valley by having paramedics stationed up there and one of our ambulances will be responding to the Swan Valley area,” Hanneman said. “That will also allow us to be able to go beyond Swan Valley because we are responsible for the area… all the way to the Wyoming border.”