By Steven Beardsley
The Naples Daily News
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — Bonita Springs fire officials are exploring the addition of an ambulance service to the district.
The trucks, which would be run by Bonita Springs Fire Control and Rescue District, could replace the area’s need for Lee County EMS, the agency that currently runs ambulances in south Lee County.
Lee County commissioners will have to approve any change.
The addition might placate critics who complain emergency responses in the district are wasteful. Currently, district rescue trucks and ambulances each respond to serious medical emergencies. Both trucks are certified Advanced Life Support providers, but only the ambulances can transport patients.
The change, according to Bonita Fire Assistant Chief Lt. Ken Craft, would improve service by reducing the number of responding units. District paramedics sometimes wait for ambulances to arrive at a scene.
“If we have our own ambulances, that would be removed,” Craft said. “Once we’re stabilized, we’re ready to go.”
Craft expects his report on the issue to go before fire commissioners in the next month or two, where it will be analyzed and could be modified or sent back for additional study.
Any approved plan will ultimately go before county commissioners.
John Wilson, director of Lee County Public Safety, which oversees EMS, said he intends to wait for a plan before offering an opinion. But Wilson said he didn’t see how a change would improve service for Bonita residents.
“We’re providing that service,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be a level-of-service issue. We’re not quite sure what the issue is.”
Wilson said transport could actually hinder residents by taking units out of the area.
“Their assets are outside the system and at the back of a hospital - how does that help the taxpayers in the district?” he wondered.
Craft said Bonita residents wait on Lee EMS already. He said an average of 2 1/2 ambulances are available to serve the area, a number that Bonita Fire can meet or eclipse.
“The Bonita ambulances won’t be pulled anywhere else but in Bonita,” he said.
On Monday, Craft and other Bonita Fire officials got a look at a possible transport unit designed for fire districts. The trucks, which were en route to a Miami-Dade district, cost $268,000 and offer space for firefighting equipment, Craft said.
Pat McCourt, a Bonita Springs councilman who has been vocal about the issue, said he feared district ambulances would still be accompanied to calls by district engines or light rescue trucks, a practice he calls “silly.”
“If it’s a medical call, there’s no point in going out there in a fire truck, a small truck or anything else,” he said. “We need an ambulance.”
Craft said the ambulances would carry between two to three paramedics, depending on the model. Some calls, such as fires, and critical heart attacks or strokes, may still require more than one truck, he said.
In Lehigh Acres, one of two Lee fire districts, with Fort Myers Beach, that runs its own ambulance services, commissioners considered scrapping the transport to keep more firefighters on trucks following a round of layoffs. Last week, they voted 3-2 to keep the service, which has existed since the 1980s.
Lehigh Fire Marshal Ken Bennett said two trucks are sometimes better than one, given the complexity of certain calls. In the end, the patient matters most, he said.
“The goal is to make sure we have enough staff on scene to meet the needs of that patient,” Bennett said.
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