Acting Emergency Services director assures Trapper Creek community that on-call responders are not being eliminated

On March 5^th, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly will vote on an ordinance that would add two new full-time ambulance crews to the borough’s Emergency Medical Services. One of those ambulances would be stationed at the new station in Susitna.

The root of the concern for some Trapper Creek residents came from a sentence that says the ordinance “approves the conversion of the paid on-call Emergency Medical Services system to a model of full-time medical providers.”

To some, that sentence reads as if the borough is planning on eliminating the current model of on-call responders. Ken Barkley agrees the wording of the ordinance could be read that way, but also says that is not the plan. As it stands, ambulances in the Northern Susitna Valley are staffed by medics who operate on-call in addition to a paramedic who can be dispatched for calls that require more advanced emergency care. Barkley says the new plan would add full-time capacity while retaining on-call responders.

After answering many questions from the TCCC board and the audience, Barkley said any change to the language of the ordinance would be up to the assembly.