WATERTOWN, N.Y. — A N.Y. town’s ambulance service has accused a competing private ambulance company of stealing 25 percent of calls.
The Town of Watertown Ambulance Service is a nonprofit squad and said that Guilfoyle Ambulance has poached many of its calls, causing the service to lose much-needed revenue, according to the Watertown Daily News.
David C. Roof, the Watertown Ambulance squad president told the Watertown Town Board last week that Guilfoyle has stolen about 175 of 2012’s ambulance calls. “That’s quite a bit of service we lose,” he said.
For the first seven months of the year, the Watertown Ambulance Service has accumulated almost $38,000 in unpaid bills, up from about $25,000 for all of 2011. Roof credits Guilfoyle’s alleged stealing of calls and the rise in health insurance cost.
Ambulance officials suggest that some of the loss in calls could be from private medical offices alerting Guilfoyle as opposed to the town service, the article said.
Guilfoyle General Manager David C. Sherman said the accusations against his company are “preposterous.”
“I have no reason to believe it,” he said.
An attorney told the News that Guilfoyle can legally cover the town because it possesses the required documentation.
“If it’s not illegal, it’s unethical,” he told the Watertown Daily News.
Town officials said that it may be possible that Guilfoyle ambulances are always on the watch to take calls because the closest ambulance to an accident is always dispatched.
“It’s disturbing to see a Guilfoyle ambulance parked along the road just waiting for a call,” Town Supervisor Joel R. Bartlett said.
Bartlett plans on meeting with the 911 dispatch to figure out a solution.
Roof says that because the ambulance service is nonprofit and is not invested in making money, the town can better afford its service as opposed to Guilfoyle’s.
Sherman countered that there are not enough calls in the city to justify an ambulance service.
The Watertown Ambulance Service has been covering the town for the last four years with $150,000 in funding from the town.