Staffing issues leave San Joaquin County's Ripon without ambulance for 3 days

RIPON — Response time for emergency calls could be the difference between life and death.

In the San Joaquin County city of Ripon, the fire department was without an ambulance for emergency calls for three days. Ripon Fire Chief Eric DeHart said it was simply a staffing shortage.

Ripon only has three paramedics year-round, and none of them were able to make it to staff the department's sole ambulance.

"The district only has three paramedics on staff, two of which were out of town," DeHart said.

The third paramedic was supposed to be on but had a family emergency, which forced the department to rely on outside agencies.

"We only have the one ambulance, so when we have the problem and our ambulance isn't staffed, we have to rely on our neighbors," DeHart said. "Our neighboring agencies have numerous ambulances within their system."

During those three days, an ambulance was needed eight times. Half of those times, a patient needed to be transported to a nearby hospital.

Chief DeHart said this isn't the only time the department has had to rely on outside agencies because of employee callouts or emergencies.

"January, February, it was a couple of times. I know coming into the months of April and May, it was around six or so times each month," he said.

Homeowners are voting on a parcel tax that would charge homeowners $21 a month or apartment complexes up to $16,000 a year so the fire district could staff a second fire station that has remained empty since 2018.

DeHart said the funds would be a game changer and help firefighters and paramedics react faster to calls so they can stabilize patients long enough for an ambulance to arrive.

"More hands for more patients. We're not having to wait for additional help from agencies that are farther away. It helps us be a bit faster in our responses," he said.