‘It was vital’: Alabama county loses funding for second ambulance; drops to one unit for entire county

By Zoe Blair

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    PICKENS COUNTY, Alabama (WVTM) — As of Friday, one ambulance serves the entirety of Pickens County because county leaders say they cannot afford the cost associated with operating a second unit.

The county went from one ambulance to two earlier this year when the County Commission voted to approve a six-month contract with NorthStar EMS for a second unit.

Vicky McCrory runs Pickens County Ambulance Service, which is a part of NorthStar EMS. She said the second ambulance was needed in this rural community.

“It was vital, you could imagine trying to provide emergency care for 20,000 people with one ambulance,” McCrory said. “Not only do we have emergency calls that we have to respond to, but we also have non-emergency calls. People who need to go to doctors appointments, wound care, dialysis, things like that that we’re not able to provide for.”

Budtender: ”It’s kind of a miracle. Be all, end all, cure all.”Cannabis consumption lounges open in central Alabama The law requires Pickens County to have an ambulance available for emergency calls 24/7, the second ambulance has helped residents with both those and non-emergency calls.

“Right now, the state requires us to have one 24 hour advanced life support ambulance available during the day, we can’t take that for a non-emergency transport,” McCrory said. “Those people are, unfortunately, going to be left in a difficult situation.”

This leaves many residents concerned about what might happen if a disaster were to strike their families.

“I have a mother-in-law; she’s 73, so if something happens to her, then we don’t know when the ambulance is going to come because we’re down to one ambulance,” Jeremy Price said.

NorthStar EMS Director Edgar Calloway said the issue began in 2020 with the closure of the Pickens County Medical Center.

“Since the hospital closed and COVID, the service has lost about half of its call volume, which drastically affects its revenue stream,” Calloway said.

When the medical center closed, Pickens County was left without a hospital. When the Pickens County Ambulance Service responds to an emergency call, they have to take patients to either Tuscaloosa or Mississippi. Calloway said many calls end up taking over three hours by the time the patient arrives at the hospital, leaving residents with no other ambulance during that time.

“You’re talking a 30-minute response and then a two-hour turnaround time, so, two and a half to three hours to take a patient, which leaves the county uncovered with emergency services for the entire time they’re gone,” he said. “If you consider we could do four of those a day, that’s roughly 12 hours of the day where there is no ambulance in Pickens County.”

NorthStar EMS is based in Tuscaloosa and frequently sends an EMS unit to Pickens County when its ambulance is tied up. Calloway said the second unit significantly reduced the number of times Tuscaloosa units were sent to the rural county and the number of unanswered calls.

“We were sending help from Tuscaloosa for most of that two-year period while we were working on the contract, and we were sending an ambulance over there about every ten calls or about once every two days in Pickens County,” Calloway said. “After the addition of the second ambulance that number dropped from 1 in 10 to 1 in 100, so it made a substantial difference, a huge impact on our ability to provide mutual aid.”

Vicky McCrory said she knows the second ambulance eased residents’ concerns.

“People were relieved, and it’s going to be sorely missed,” she said. “I hope it’s not at the cost of somebody’s life.”

For residents like Jeremy Price, now that the second ambulance is gone, those concerns are back.

Price said he and his wife are considering moving out of Pickens County because of this specific issue.

“It puts me in a frantic state because if we don’t have but one ambulance, if we have a situation where we need medical attention here at Humble Beginnings or at our home, then it might be an hour or two hours before the ambulance comes,” Price said.

The possibility of moving counties comes less than a year after he and his wife opened their bakery, Humble Beginnings. Price said they absolutely do not want to move, but they’re at a point where they feel like they may have to.

“Me and my wife were heartbroken about the situation because we love Pickens County,” he said. “We love being here, we love our family, our family’s here. I don’t want to leave my job. I really love my job, I love what I do every day, and I don’t want to leave, but if there’s something that happens when we need medical attention, what are we to do?”

As of right now, there are no official plans to bring a second ambulance to the county, but county leaders say they’re looking for a solution.

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