PARCHAMN, Miss.–Sunflower County needs a fourth ambulance, says Supervisor Glen Donald. He brought the issue up at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, saying the county only has three ambulances and Parchamn will sometimes take one of those up for a long time, leaving other county residents who need emergency services in a bind.
Donald said he got a text from a doctor Friday, telling him about such a delay.
“We had a dire emergency. But, our ambulance was up at Parchman,” he said.
Supervisor Sherry Gaston asked why the county’s ambulance was there. “I thought they had one of their own,” she said.
“They did. But, they don’t have it operating now,” he said, noting that by law the county’s service must serve Parchman because it is part of the county.
Donald said Parchman, as a prison, also must follow rules that end up taking the ambulance away for hours at a time.
“Our ambulance will go there and if they don’t have an extra guard to leave with that patient, our ambulance has to just set there and sometimes it’ll be hours just sitting there,” he said.
The board agreed to discuss the possibility of getting another ambulance, with that cost possibly being $800,000 to $1 million. The supes may also discuss the possibility of hiring a secondary service. One supervisor noted that having just three ambulances for a 61-mile long county is too few anyway.
