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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; When the backup ambulance providers in Wilkes-Barre Township started taking on more calls there than Trans-Med Ambulance, the township&#8217;s main service provider, Angela Patla took notice.</p><p>The operations manager for the Plains Volunteer Ambulance Association and a full-time paramedic for the city of Wilkes-Barre, Patla said she had her suspicions. She said she checked the digital dispatch logs from Luzerne County 911 and determined Plains answered 36 calls in Wilkes-Barre Township between July 1 and the middle of August.</p><p>Patla declined to provide a reporter with copies of the dispatch data logs, but agreed to summarize what she found.</p><p>On average, she said, Plains&#8217; Medic 2 answered five calls as part of the mutual aid agreement, but Patla said she suspects the primary reason for the increase was because <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/524812/aambulanceplan-changesquestioned" target="_blank">Trans-Med took on a greater role as a secondary provider in Wilkes-Barre</a>.</p><p>&#8220;Now it seems like they&#8217;ve been focusing on Wilkes-Barre, but they&#8217;re dropping a lot of calls in their primary areas,&#8221; Patla said Tuesday.</p><p>Chris Woolfolk, a paramedic coordinator with the Hanover Township Ambulance Association, said he noticed it too.</p><p>Woolfolk said it&#8217;s understandable that an ambulance company is not going to be able to respond to 100 percent of the calls in its coverage area, and that&#8217;s why there are mutual aid agreements. But Hanover&#8217;s Medic 9 isn&#8217;t even on the list of backup ambulances in Wilkes-Barre Township and it&#8217;s been called out, sometimes more than once as was the case on Aug. 12, he said.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been a significant uptick in Wilkes-Barre Township,&#8221; Woolfolk said.</p><p>Attempts to reach Wilkes-Barre Township Mayor Carl Kuren for comment were unsuccessful.</p><p>The call volume for 911 is up overall and the reason for the backup dispatches, responded Phillip Hamilton, director of operations for Trans-Med Ambulance Inc. in Luzerne. He disputed that the for-profit company is concentrating more on Wilkes-Barre at the expense of other areas.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s not it at all,&#8221; Hamilton said.</p><p>In a matter of 15 minutes Tuesday, there were seven calls in Wilkes-Barre, more than the city&#8217;s two ambulances &#8212; Medic 3 and Medic 5 &#8212; could handle, Hamilton said. Backups were needed and responded, proving the point that &#8220;no resource in this valley is untappable,&#8221; he added.</p><p>Trans-Med moved up in the dispatch protocol in Wilkes-Barre in April after Mayor Tony George named it the primary backup and reshuffled the participants in a mutual aid agreement its creators said had been working just fine. George said he made the switch because Trans-Med, at no charge, agreed to designate two units to the city, in effect doubling the number of ambulances providing coverage.</p><p>The agreement with the city called for Trans-Med to put one ambulance at the parking lot of the Save-A-Lot store on South Main Street and another one in the Schiel&#8217;s supermarket lot on George Avenue. Patla said she&#8217;s seen another unit parked under the North Cross Valley Expressway bridges along the road that connects North Washington Street in the city and South Main Street in Plains Township.</p><p>Prior to the move, Trans-Med, along with Plains, Hanover and Kingston, had designated coverage areas in the city. After the change, Plains, Hanover and Kingston dropped a notch to third place with Commonwealth Health rounding out the list of backups to be dispatched.</p><p>Patla and others have said Trans-Med&#8217;s rise in the response ranks is an attempt by the company to get its foot in the door in the city and eventually take over the ambulance service. George has acknowledged thinking about privatizing the service as a cost-cutting measure.</p><p>On Thursday, George said he was unaware of the increased backup response in Wilkes-Barre Township. Trans-Med has been fulfilling its role in Wilkes-Barre, the mayor said.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going real well. The response times are good,&#8221; George said.</p><p>Hamilton did not respond to a request for a list of emergency calls Trans-Med responded to in Wilkes-Barre Township between July 1 and Aug. 15 that required Plains and Hanover township ambulances to be dispatched as backups.</p><p>Luzerne County 911 executive director Fred Rosencrans was out of the office until Aug. 29 and directed inquiries to Megan Hannon, Public Safety Answering Point manager, about the backup calls in Wilkes-Barre Township.</p><p>&#8220;Unfortunately I am not at will to discuss time response logs and mutual aid responses,&#8221; Hannon said in an email Thursday. &#8220;This information may be available after a right-to-know request has been received.&#8221;</p><p>Hamilton also didn&#8217;t reply to an email asking why Plains Township was dispatched instead of Trans-Med to a call Tuesday afternoon.</p><p>&#8220;This is more than just overflow,&#8221; Patla said. It was another instance of Trans-Med ignoring a call, she said.</p><p>Patla said she heard Plains being dispatched over the radio at 4:18 p.m to a call at the Subway at 2150 Wilkes-Barre Township Marketplace. There were no calls at the time in Wilkes-Barre, where Trans-Med has two ambulances stationed, she said. Furthermore, none of Trans-Med&#8217;s ambulances were on emergency calls in the township at the time, she said.</p><p>The same scenario happened twice on July 3, three times on July 13 and again on July 21, Patla said.</p><p>In the latter incident, she said, Plains was dispatched at 7:43 p.m. for a call of a man who fell down stairs at a residence on Nicholson Street in Wilkes-Barre Township. Patla said she was working in Wilkes-Barre at the time and heard the radio dispatch while driving past a Trans-Med ambulance parked in the lot of the Save-A-Lot store. She said she later checked the 911 logs and found that none of Trans-Med&#8217;s ambulances were on a call at the time.</p><p>Make no mistake, Patla said, a Plains ambulance will respond if it&#8217;s available when a call comes in. But to deliberately let calls go has consequences, she said.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re taking away from everybody,&#8221; Patla said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a domino effect.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Trans-Med Ambulance acts as the primary backup in Wilkes-Barre and it&#8217;s been concentrating on the city and reportedly dropping calls in other areas its committed to serve. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_TransMedphoto.jpg</photo0><caption0>Trans-Med Ambulance acts as the primary backup in Wilkes-Barre and it&#8217;s been concentrating on the city and reportedly dropping calls in other areas its committed to serve. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Officials: Ambulance company is prioritizing Wilkes-Barre over other areas