It's been about 5 months so the signers of this petition deserve a status update.  We have so far met three times with both the Town manager and two Selectman.

One of the goals of the petition was to reduce the mutual aid calls necessary from neighboring towns since their average call-to-arrival time is 15 minutes from a neighboring town versus 7 minutes for Simsbury Ambulance Association (SAA). Since this effort in June, SAA has put two ambulances on more consistently from 7am to 7pm, and the balance of calls coming in from mutual aid towns versus calls going out of Simsbury has improved significantly.  Right now all we have is a vague agreement that they will continue to review the data but it would be best for the town to obtain a solid commitment from SAA that a 2nd ambulance will always be on from 7am to 7pm.  The data has consistently supported that this is warranted for the number of 7am to 7pm calls, and the town has grown significantly and that will continue.  Our petition seeks a second ambulance, 24/7.

A Simsbury Police Officer shows up to all/most emergency calls first.  They have some basic medical training and a radio but they are Not EMTs.  Very often all they can do is wait with you, most especially on more serious calls.  The 5-minute average police response time should not be used to talk down the actual need for a trained EMT and/or paramedic.  Making such a case is not even fair to SPD.

DATA, and how it's presented, is key here.  While we write of averages above, what is even more important is how often our (Total SAA And mutual aid) ambulance response time exceeds 8 minutes in Simsbury since exceeding that benchmark is the difference between life, death, and permanent disability, for Our Children, Ourselves, and Our Parents.  The number and percentage of calls that have exceeded this benchmark has been the most elusive information for us to obtain.  It is always met by the providing of "chute time" (time out of the garage), and then caveats about how some calls are not as urgent as others, and then talk of averages, and then promises to provide the number, percentage, and time frame of calls that exceed 8 minutes call-to-arrival "later" or "next time."  Dozens of people have contacted us about troubling wait times of 20 to 30+ minutes in real emergencies.  We're not looking for a perfect service but we MUST minimize the number of longer wait times, because when it's you or your child waiting then data on averages is not going to make anyone feel better.

The Town has no representation on the Ambulance Board.  This must change since we are their service area.  We have asked the town to pursue that.  There should be no reason why this would not be welcomed by SAA to achieve the best coordination possible.

We appreciate your ongoing support in the effort !!  Thank You !!