Statement from Durham County EMS

January 17, 2023

The health, safety and wellbeing of Durham County residents and visitors is at the core of our mission as Emergency Medical Services providers. While it has been reported that our fleet has experienced some challenges, we want the community to know we are doing our best to lessen any impact to our ability to respond to emergency calls.

We have approximately 140 credentialed employees who have staffed 14-16 ambulances during the daytime over the last 12 months, including 6 peak hour trucks during the busiest times of day, and 7-8 units overnight. Our units provide advanced life support at the paramedic level; the majority are staffed with a paramedic and an EMT or Advanced EMT.

Ideally, we would like to staff 18 units on daytime and 12 units at night. The reason for the reductions from a full fleet is two-fold: We are presently experiencing a shortage of mechanics to manage our ambulance units. Specifically, our fleet services unit has been down to one mechanic since mid-March 2022. Two separate attempts to fill that vacant position were unsuccessful. And just a week ago, the lone remaining mechanic resigned for a private sector position, despite attempts to retain his services.

Currently, we are having our units serviced by dealerships in Durham, Raleigh, and additional vendors in the Triangle. The challenge in keeping mechanics employed is not limited to county government. Area dealerships and independent shops also report having significant issues with both recruiting and retaining qualified mechanics.

As others are, we are also being challenged with supply chain issues. We have been challenged in obtaining required parts in a timely manner, both at our own Fleet Shop, or from dealerships. And the time required to manufacture a new unit is also impacted by the supply chain issue. Prior to the pandemic, the typical time to build an ambulance was 140-180 days. That period has now been extended to an average of 720 days, or two years.

In an effort to mitigate these factors and ensure that we respond to our community, Durham County EMS is currently running every available ambulance that we have-that number can vary from day to day, or even hour to hour depending on when units must be taken out of service for repair, or when they return from the repair shop. To assist in maintaining our response posture, when we do not have an ambulance vehicle, but we have crew, we have placed that crew on a quick response vehicle to respond to calls. This ensures that an EMS crew can respond, assess, and begin treating patients while awaiting the arrival of an ambulance for transport.

We continue to partner with surrounding jurisdictions and Wake, Orange, and Person counties assist us when they are able.

At the end of the day, we will continue to address these challenges to ensure that our residents receive the emergency medical services they require.