An agreement between the city and county over ambulance services will hold for another year, but there may still be efforts to renegotiate it.
Wichita City Council members couldn’t get the votes at their meeting Tuesday to formally notify Sedgwick County that it would be ending a 13-year-old agreement over local ambulance services.
Since 2003, Sedgwick County has had the exclusive right to operate emergency and non-emergency services in Wichita, with a few exceptions. But the City of Wichita now wants to open the market up to private companies to provide non-emergency ambulance services, such as patient transport.
“It would be no different than a taxi cab service owned by the county. You can call the yellow cab or you can call the county cab," says Kansas City, Missouri, attorney Nick Porto. He spoke in support of the measure on behalf of APS Ambulance, a private, non-emergency ambulance company.
The city argues patients will benefit from an additional option. But Sedgwick County EMS director Scott Hadley said it could hurt his department financially and possibly impact its ability to serve patients. He cautioned against making a decision over the agreement too quickly.
“There are risks with opting out today and giving that notice," he told City Council members. "There is no risk of continuing that agreement, allowing us to provide a quality service, which we've provided for the last 13 years, to sit down at the table and answer some of the questions that you all have.”
The city still wants to renegotiate the terms of the contract, but it might have to wait until the next fiscal year. The council has no more meetings scheduled before the July 1 deadline to terminate the contract, which will renew automatically as is.
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