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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tyler Weaver, Former EMT, on FDNY Budget and EMS Response Times
3:11:18
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Tyler Weaver, a former EMT, testified about the need for additional funding in the 2026 FDNY budget to address high EMS response times. He shared a personal experience of his son's cardiac arrest and highlighted data showing long wait times for advanced life support ambulances in The Bronx.
- Weaver emphasized that EMS staffing issues are primarily due to underpayment, leading to high turnover and difficulty in attracting personnel.
- He argued that the preliminary budget proposal is insufficient to address the staffing needs and reduce response times.
- Weaver referenced Local Law 119 data and previous Mayor's management reports to support his arguments for increased EMS funding and resources.
Tyler Weaver
3:11:18
Okay, great.
3:11:20
Hi, good afternoon.
3:11:21
My name is Tyler Weaver.
3:11:23
Before I begin, I'd just like to quickly thank committee chair Joanne Ariola, her staff and the other committee members for the attention they bring to FDNY issues that are of importance to everyone in New York City.
3:11:34
I also wanna acknowledge the very hard work that the firefighters and EMS personnel perform every day to keep the city safe.
3:11:43
When it comes to the 2026 budget, I believe some additional funding is going to be required to address the issue of the high response times for EMS.
3:11:51
As the committee members already know, these long response times impacted my family in December 2023, when our son Nicholas suffered a cardiac arrest in The Bronx and waited nineteen minutes for an ambulance.
3:12:04
While that event is just a single data point, New York City's Local Law one nineteen official data on emergency responses show that advanced life support ambulances in The Bronx every month since the end of twenty twenty three are taking more than ten minutes to arrive 75% of the time.
3:12:22
If you do the math with about forty eight thousand ALS calls per year in The Bronx, this means approximately 36,000 people in The Bronx each year are being forced to wait long times for the highest level of EMS care, which are the advanced life support units.
3:12:36
As the committee report for today's meeting indicates, EMS faces major issues with staffing, and this issue has been ongoing for years.
3:12:43
When you dig into the reasons why staffing is a problem, the same answer keeps popping up, namely that EMS personnel in New York City are underpaid and that this causes high turnover and difficulty in attracting and keeping the proper amount of people needed to staff units at the correct level.
3:12:59
When one considers that an even higher number of EMS staff and ambulances would actually be needed to start bringing down the high response times, it ought to be clear that EMS funding and resourcing needs to be higher than the preliminary budget proposes.
3:13:14
Previous years, Mayor's management reports indicated that in the past, twenty five percent of cardiac arrests were able to be taken to the hospital with return of their heart.
UNKNOWN
3:13:23
Your time has expired.