INDIANOLA, Miss.–Ambulances are in short supply in Sunflower County, with the Board of Supervisors again discussing the problem at Monday’s meeting. This time it was apparent the county will not be able to afford the estimated $1 million cost for a new ambulance.
One difficulty the county faces is that there are just three county-owned ambulances and the county is geographically spread out north to south at 61 miles.
Another problem is they are required to provide service for Parchman, the state prison, which takes up an ambulance if there is a medical emergency there. Another facet to that is that they are short-staffed and if a guard is not available to accompany an inmate, the ambulance sits there until one is available.
Supervisor Glen Donald also brought up another point Monday.
“The major problem is that we live in a society where there are mass shootings all the time and we only have three ambulances,” he said. “If you get a mass shooting, you need to have more than three ambulances in our county and you need to have a contract with another ambulance service to come in.”
Board Pres. Gloria Dickerson suggested a meeting with Parchman might be in order. They are supposed to have their own ambulance. But that has not materialized.
“We need to talk with Parchman about why they don’t have enough staff,” she said. “We hire staff we can’t afford. So, maybe they need to hire staff they can’t afford.”
It was also pointed out in the meeting that a new state law requires the county to have a mutual aid agreement with another ambulace service from an adjacent county in case it is needed.
