The San Francisco Fire
Department’s ambulance response time doesn’t measure up to state standards, a
civil grand jury says.
The San Francisco Fire
Department has made strides in getting ambulances to emergencies faster, but
still lags behind state response time standards and is not training crews to
deal with a disaster, a civil grand jury said Thursday.
The 19-member civilian
panel began its investigation after The Chronicle reported last year about the
city’s troubled response time record. An examination of a year’s worth of 911
calls found that the Fire Department was regularly failing to meet its
10-minute standard for responding to life-threatening emergencies and that the
delays were most likely to affect people calling from neighborhoods along the
city’s southern rim.
The civil grand jury said
the Fire Department has been making only incremental progress in fixing the
problem because of understaffing, millions of dollars in deferred maintenance,
outdated facilities and a lack of strategic planning.
“Reports generated by SFFD
staff show response time progress, but the department is still not achieving
the (state) mandates,” the panel concluded.
In a statement, Fire Chief
Joanne Hayes-White said her staff would reply to the findings within two
months.
The civil grand jury cited
data showing that Fire Department ambulances reached emergency scenes within 10
minutes 87 percent of the time in June, short of the state standard of 90
percent. That was an improvement, however, over the 83 percent level in
January, the grand jury found.
The city beefed up its
ambulance staffing after The Chronicle’s investigation last year, but the grand
jury found that response problems persist in some parts of the city. In areas
farthest from hospitals, patients must wait more than 10 minutes for ambulances
in one out of four emergencies, the panel said.
One problem, the grand jury
said, is that the city suffers from a “chronic lack of serviceable ambulances.”
Half of its 54-ambulance fleet has been in service beyond the expected 10-year
life span, and as many as one-third are in the shop at any one time, the grand
jury said.
“The ambulance fleet is
aging; more than a few need to be permanently retired,” the panel said. “As
time is of the essence in responding to medical calls, dependable ambulances
are a must.”
The grand jury also cited
other emergency-response issues in the Fire Department, particularly what the
panel called its lack of planning for dealing with a disaster.
“Living in a time when a
terrorist strike on San Francisco could be a reality rather than a movie, we
asked SFFD personnel about the training they receive to respond to a disaster,”
the grand jury said. “Their responses indicated that such training is not
provided, particularly for rank and file.”
In an interview, grand jury
forewoman Janice Pettey said, “We were shocked. You would think the Fire
Department would have a plan in place.”
The panel said the
department’s lack of strategic planning has been noted in city reports as far
back as 2002. “SFFD has no formal strategic plan and is not creating such a
plan in the near future,” the panel said.
Hayes-White’s office did
not respond to questions about long-term planning.
July 16, 2015
SFGate
By
Jaxon Van Derbeken
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