Lars Larson: Should you expect an ambulance?

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

When someone’s hurt badly at your house, you want an ambulance fast, right?

Thought so. Me too.

Well, you best not live in Multnomah County.

County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, not the exactly sharpest tool in the shed, put the brakes on a plan to get more staffed-up ambulances on the street right now.

It all comes down to America’s nationwide shortage of paramedics.

The head of AMR, the company that supplies ambulances under contract to the county, came on my talk show 5 months ago to explain.

He says AMR could put more ambulances on the street right now if it could temporarily staff with one paramedic and 1 EMT.

Studies show that’s actually medically superior to 2 paramedics.

More ambulances, faster response to your 9-1-1 call.

Dim wit Pederson insists on the letter of the AMR contract that requires 2, written before the pandemic.

Multnomah County spends 4 billion of your tax money every year.

They don’t do much of anything right…check the homeless and drug overdose problems for evidence of that.

But it could provide a lifesaving ambulance fix immediately.

For now, Vega Pederson chooses not to do that.

Just pray you don’t need a quick ambulance anytime soon.