New and Improved Ambulance Service in Milford: Mayor's Office

MILFORD, CT — The City of Milford, in conjunction with its Fire Department, is proud to announce a new partnership with Nelson Ambulance Service, which will be assisting the City with the transportation of patients to area hospitals, both the mayor's office and the Fire Department said Tuesday in a news release.

This partnership comes with a host of benefits to the City and its residents including improved patient care, quicker response times, additional ambulances in the City and the region, an enhanced system of quality management, and new non-taxpayer revenue streams to help sustain operations, officials said in a news release.

Here is the rest of the statement released by city officials:

In addition to our Class 1 Fire Suppression Services, Milford’s Emergency Medical Services are also among the finest in the nation. To provide these excellent Fire/Rescue services, Milford invests in and employs 113 firefighters, 112 of whom are EMTs, and 27 of whom are also licensed paramedics. Our medical first responders operate out of paramedic engine companies and 3 licensed City ambulances strategically positioned across Milford to ensure time-critical response for the 5,000 medical calls they answer each year.

According to Fire Chief Douglas Edo, “we meet and exceed the high response time standards established by the National Fire Protection Association, and these impressive response times have produced life-saving results.”

Mayor Ben Blake confirmed that “over the past few years, we’ve worked diligently and extensively to develop a better response system for residents. We’ve advocated for state legislative changes and then petitioned the Department of Health to secure these important advancements which will benefit patients and taxpayers.”

While the Fire Department has long held the first responder designation and provided advanced life support services (ALS) within the City, Connecticut’s Department of Public Health just recently assigned Milford the transport designation for basic life support (BLS) ambulance service. This will now allow the Fire Department to transport patients to area hospitals and bill insurance companies for each level of service, thus creating a sufficient revenue stream to return to the general fund while helping to offset tax increases.

Under this new and enhanced Emergency Medical Services Plan, additional ambulances will be dedicated to the City at all times so that they may respond to emergency scenes faster. Patient care in Milford will continue to improve as the Fire Department's EMS Division and Milford Hospital will now provide uniform medical oversight and control to consistently monitor and manage the quality of EMS in the City. This measure allows for more accountability by giving the City the right to dictate the standards by which services are provided and also the choice of a provider that will live up to these standards.