City of Burton partnering with Medstar Ambulance for guaranteed emergency service
ABC 12 — There’s a new lifeline for first responders in Burton.
The city is announcing a partnership for EMS services with Medstar Ambulance, but it’s not just ambulance staff that are getting help. It could also make a life-saving difference for those responding to an emergency.
Right now in Burton, there are times where there are long delays for an ambulance during a medical emergency and even times where not a single one is around to respond to the community’s calls for help.
“With the current shortages of EMS and availability of ambulances in Genesee County right now that are county-wide, this agreement will ensure that we have better coverage in the city of Burton,” Fire Chief Kirk Wilkinson said.
The city is hoping to change that, announcing a new partnership with Medstar Ambulance for emergency medical services on Thursday, joining other Mid-Michigan communities like Davison, Davison Township, and Richfield Township.
“Now, we’re guaranteed service here in our city for our residents to make sure that when they have a medical emergency, we’re going to be able to get an ambulance to their home and be able to provide for their loved one to get them to the hospital in need,” Mayor Duane Haskins said.
Haskins is calling this a milestone for the city and its residents, who won’t have to pay anything extra for a direct agreement that includes guaranteed EMS service, medical first responder training for firefighters, and other additional resources.
“We have a warming bus that we use for house fires. 20 passenger bus. We stock it with coffee and water and warming things in the winter and cooling things in the summer, so that when we’re at a fire standby at one of our partner fire departments, the guys have a place to come in, sit down for a minute, take their turn-out gear, cool off,” Chief Executive Officer, Kolby Miller said.
ABC12 asked Medstar how long it would take for their partnership with Burton to take full effect, and they say they’ll be increasing deployment by mid-July while the agreement goes through processing.