Increase Emergency Medical Service Resources

For the past several years, the increase in emergency calls for service has put a strain on the SFFD’s ability to meet its mission and perform at the highest levels of safety, reliability, and functionality. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel work 10 and 12-hour shifts on ambulances and provide first response and medical transport at the Advanced Life Support (ALS) level to over 1.5 million residents and visitors. In many parts of the City, EMS personnel are short-staffed and unable to effectively respond to the more than 150,000 emergency calls we receive each year.

IAFF Reports

In a June 2019 Report on Emergency Response in San Francisco, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) concluded that the EMS workload and current staffing deployment by the SFFD requires additional resources to respond to emergencies in the City effectively. Without adding more ambulances, the Department “will not be able to provide adequate emergency response causing an increase in the number of calls where there are no available ambulances to respond. SFFD needs additional resources to provide the City of San Francisco with a safe and high-quality emergency response system.”

A second report released in February of 2020 by the IAFF also demonstrated that the SFFD “does not staff the necessary ambulances to provide effective response to medical emergencies in the City of San Francisco.” Even though the City has an agreement with two separate private ambulance providers that cover approximately 20% of calls during peak hours, the Department is still deficient by approximately 12-16 people every day.

The IAFF recommends a minimum of 30 ambulances during non-peak hours ( 11PM to 9AM) and up to 60 ambulances during peak demand hours (9AM to 11PM), which would also dramatically decrease response times and workload for SFFD Firefighters. In high incident areas such as District 3, as well as outer portions of the City (Districts 1, 4, 10, and 11) where there can be no coverage of ambulances in the event of an emergency, this will have a significant impact on our ability to save lives.

Homeless Epidemic

As we continue to see an untenable homeless epidemic in our City, further strain is put on EMS resources. More Paramedics and EMTs in the field are needed to keep pace with the over 30% growth of our homeless count in the past three years to safely meet the needs of this most vulnerable constituency.

Presently, the COVID-19 outbreak is our most recent signal for increased EMS resources. The newly created RC5 position that was implemented to respond to virus-related calls helped to ease the burden; however, more resources are needed to support our members who are at higher risk of exposure while trying to provide service without interruption. The reality is that we are likely to see a similar event in our future. When that time comes, we should have adequate EMS resources at our disposal so that we can respond to meet the needs of our communities and protect the public.