“When someone calls 911, it’s usually the worst day of their life. “I think there’s room for error and we feel people could fall through the cracks,” Pauley explained. Petersburg's Association of Firefighters Union, says it could put citizens in danger. Not everyone is on board with priority dispatch. “For example, we had one person who is wheelchair bound call 9-1-1 90 times in two months for help getting up two stairs. The county estimates the average response times for non-emergency calls could go up five minutes, but the response times could go down for calls for heart attacks, drownings and other life or death scenarios.įogarty estimates 16,500 calls a year come from people who are sick or have minor falls. PINELLAS COUNTY NEWS | The latest headlines from Pinellas County That way county leaders can preserve resources for more severe calls.ĩ11 call takers will have 32 categories to choose from when someone calls. With the change, not every call would warrant both a Sunstar Ambulance and a fire truck. The plan is already working in Hillsborough County to reduce how many crews show up to handle calls. Now, Pinellas County will start categorizing calls coming in based on how dire the emergency is. Jim Fogarty, Pinellas County’s Director of Safety and Emergency Services says those calls make up between 10-15% of all 9-1-1 calls, but it’s enough to delay response to true emergency situations. Pinellas County working to improve 911 response timeĬounty leaders are working to tackle the problem of thousands of non-emergency calls coming into 9-1-1 call centers.Other cities in Pinellas can join into the priority dispatch as well. The cities of Clearwater, Largo, Safety Harbor, Seminole and the Lealman Fire District opted in. It also means you may not see that ambulance for 10-20 minutes if the situation isn’t urgent. ![]() That means starting June 1, if you call 911 with a minor issue, you will only get an ambulance to respond. Tuesday, county leaders voted unanimously to approve a new system called priority dispatch. The next time you call 911 in Pinellas County, you may not see both a fire truck and ambulance responding to the call.
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