AUSTIN, Texas — City of Austin leaders have less than a month to hammer out a new budget. As part of the plan, they're considering pumping millions of more dollars into EMS.
Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) is potentially set to receive an extra $12 million.
"We are the largest municipal third service EMS in the country," ATCEMS Chief Robert Luckritz said.
Luckritz said this money is needed and will help add more critical team members like those in the Collaborative Care Center. That's a group of trained professionals that can help triage incidents better and not necessarily send off ambulances for every call.
"Ambulances go to life-threatening emergencies. And let's find problem-solvers like community health paramedics, physician assistants, other individuals that can, you know, telehealth that can solve some of these problems, without taking someone to the hospital," Luckritz said.
Currently, ambulances are already stretched thin, according to Austin EMS Association President Selena Xie.
"The city has simply not kept up with the EMS resources we've needed," Xie said.
One of the biggest priorities Xie said the department needs to focus on is having the proper amount of ambulances. Stations near downtown areas and other heavy call areas are having to pull help from surrounding neighborhoods just to keep up with the call volume.
"If the city can't afford to continue to add ambulances, it really needs to think about doing the smart thing, which is staffing specialized units downtown, on Rainey Street and at The Domain," Xie said.
Xie said the money coming is crucial for adding more equipment and raises, but there is still much more work this department desperately needs in both communications and resources.
"We really do need more resources at the moment, especially on the weekend nights on Rainey Street to prevent lake deaths, which we know actually we have," Xie said.
Both Xie and Luckritz said they want to be able to help Austinites as quickly and best as they possibly can.
The Austin City Council will begin hearing community feedback on the proposed budget next Wednesday, July 24.