By Paul Liotta
Staten Island Advance
NEW YORK— Two fewer emergency response ambulances will serve Staten Island starting in July, the Advance/SILive.com learned Monday.
A spokesperson for Richmond University Medical Center confirmed the hospital would take two 911-responding ambulances entirely out of service starting in July because of financial reasons.
| EARLIER: Overnight ambulance unit cut highlights NYC’s growing EMS staffing crisis
“Like many hospitals, Richmond University Medical Center regularly evaluates its operations to ensure resources are used responsibly and sustainably. As an independent hospital — without the financial backing or scale of a large healthcare system — RUMC faces increasing challenges competing in today’s complex healthcare environment,” the spokesperson said. “This change followed a careful review of operational needs and costs following the recent federal cuts and supports our ability to continue delivering high-quality emergency care while maintaining the hospital’s long-term financial stability. The FDNY was notified in advance in accordance with all required protocols.”
The West Brighton hospital taking two ambulances entirely out of service in July follows the announced end of an overnight ambulance shift earlier this year. There will be four RUMC ambulances serving Staten Island throughout the day starting in July instead of the traditional six.
“We remain fully committed to the Staten Island community and will continue to closely monitor emergency response needs to ensure patient safety and access to care. At the same time, we are actively pursuing opportunities to affiliate with larger academic healthcare systems to strengthen RUMC’s future while preserving our deep roots in Staten Island ,” the hospital spokesperson said. “We remain focused on strengthening our services, supporting our workforce, which includes our EMS professionals who continue to serve our community with excellence, and ensuring that RUMC remains a solvent and resilient healthcare provider for our community.”
RUMC is far from the only hospital across the five boroughs pulling back its emergency medical services due to self-described financial hardship.
Staten Island University Hospital, Northwell Health, also cut an overnight shift in 2023, and Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health, cut about a dozen paramedics in October, sparking concerns about growing ambulance response times, according to a CBS News report. Staten Island University Hospital also operates four 911-responding ambulances throughout the day.
The New York Post also reported Monday that the FDNY could soon hike patient costs for its ambulance services to help meet inflation and cover costs of an impending paramedic pay raise. The cost of a “basic life support” ambulance trip would go from $1,385 to $1,793 under the proposal, and “treatment in place” service would jump from $630 to $896, according to the Post report. More serious transports would see even more significant price increases climbing close to $2,200.
Actualizing long-sought pay parity for FDNY EMTs seems more a possibility now than any other time in the 30 years the ambulance responders have been part of the city’s fire department, particularly with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s appointment of Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, an FDNY EMS veteran with over 30 years of service.
Base salary for an FDNY EMT tops out around $59,000 after five years, while firefighters with the same years of service top out around $110,000.
While ambulance service across the five boroughs has lessened and grown more expensive in the past decade, response times have only gotten slower.
September’s Mayor’s Management Report, an annual report card about the performance of city agencies, found that in the last five years ambulance response times for life-threatening emergencies had increased by nearly two minutes. Modern ambulance response times for life-threatening emergencies trail those from a decade ago by two minutes and 12 seconds, according to the 2020 Mayor’s Management Report.
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