Police Chief Brandon Gurley says it's not uncommon police wait for more than 50 minutes.

BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — The City of Brookhaven is asking the state to either let them establish their own ambulance service or to improve medical response times from American Medical Response — the private company providing service to DeKalb County.

Brookhaven Police Chief Brandon Gurley said it's not uncommon to wait 50 minutes or more to get an ambulance on the scene. 

"We're having to train our officers at a higher level on medical care that a police officer normally wouldn't be trained in just so that we know that they are trained and equipped, not only to provide lifesaving first aid to the public while waiting on an ambulance to get on scene but so that they can provide lifesaving care to each other in an instance where an officer is injured," Gurley said. "Because we know that we're going to wait just as long for an ambulance if we're injured in the line of duty."

Gurley explained his team is learning how to perform first aid themselves.

"AMR's response time has been a problem for years," Gurley said, "Over the last two years, we've seen it grow."

Chief Gurley shared an example from a domestic violence call on June 19:

• 8:48 a.m. - An ambulance is requested
• 9:20 a.m. - EMS hadn't shown up, police asked for an updated ETA
• 9:26 a.m. - The victim has complications due to diabetes, so police upgraded the call
• 9:40 a.m. - Ambulance unit tells their supervisor they did not receive a           call. They had to return to the base before they could respond,
• 9:45 a.m. - Dekalb County fire arrives to assist.
• 10:30 a.m. - When checking for an updated ETA, they found out dispatch         canceled the call due to firefighter's arrival with no update on needing assistance.
• "At 10:34, the victim gave up and said they would take themselves to the hospital," Gurley said. "And they had some significant facial injuries from the fight."

DeKalb County Fire Chief Darnell Fullum said this is just one call from a few examples, but their EMS services through AMR cover the entire county. Fullum explained the majority of their high-priority calls meet the standard of 12 minutes or less about 90% of the time. 

Gurley wants DeKalb County to hold AMR accountable. Fullum said they are.

"AMR has paid right at 1.1 million dollars in penalties to the county," Fullum said.

However, Fullum explained the county is facing staffing shortages via paramedics, hospital workers, etc. Plus, there's been an increase in EMS utilization. It also takes longer to get patients into hospitals. One hospital in their area closed down, overwhelming staff more. And they're still dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You're not going to improve the service through penalties," Fullum said. "It's working together collaboratively to improve the services."

Fullum said the county is already seeking improvements.

"What we're going to continue to do is to work to improve our service, recognizing that we are facing challenges that we never even thought about pre-2020, pre-COVID," Fullum said. "We're in conversations with AMR on how best to possibly even revise the current contract."

The contract ends in December 2024. 

"There are people in Dekalb County, specifically in Brookhaven, that need medical services," Gurley said. "And they're not getting the medical service on scene timely."

AMR responded to 11Alive. Regional Director or the Southeast Region of AMR Georgia, Chris Valentin released this statement:

AMR values our longstanding relationship with DeKalb County and the communities we serve, including Brookhaven. We are actively engaged with DeKalb leadership in an ongoing fashion to strengthen the EMS system throughout the entire County through meaningful and significant system investments. DeKalb is one of the nation’s fastest-growing communities, and emergency services remain under immense pressure from growing demand coupled with a lack of resources due to recent hospital closures and significant staffing shortages caused by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. These impacts are being felt in a profound way throughout the entire healthcare and public safety industries. In response, AMR has invested in new infrastructure and systems – including an EMS Station in the city of Brookhaven that opened a few years ago alongside innovative solutions such as the DeKalb County 911 Nurse Navigation Program. In addition, we have implemented creative staffing and training initiatives through our Earn While You Learn initiative and our new paramedic training program, which just graduated 17 new paramedics with new classes already underway. AMR remains committed to working with county and local fire, police, and other public safety officials to face current system-related challenges and deliver a world-class EMS system for the residents of DeKalb County.