City may look into providing ambulance service
Fire Department Chief Bill Van Helden said Monday night that the city should conduct a study to determine if providing ambulance transport is a viable option.
Currently the city is served by Lee County Emergency Medical Services, especially for transport, though the city does have a number of first responders who attend to immediate medical needs.
Van Helden said that exploring the option of “Advanced Life Support Transport” is nothing new for the city as its been done on three other occasions.
“The city has wrestled with this many times,” Van Helden said.
Councilmember Chris Chulakes-Leetz said Lee County currently provides “6 1/2” ambulances to Cape Coral, a number that he said grossly under serves the city.
Chulakes-Leetz said there should be one ambulance for every 10,000 residents. He said, as it stands, the city’s first responders do “60 percent of the work,” while Lee EMS transports the patients.
“There are periods when there are no ambulances in Cape Coral,” Chulakes-Leetz said.
City Council will likely support the study next Monday. Van Helden said there is no cost to the study, as it will be done by utilizing in house personnel.