Medina hospital asked to help pay for new ambulance

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 April 2019 at 9:55 am

(Editor’s Note: This article was updated from an earlier version that said the Medina Memorial Hospital had agreed to help pay for an ambulance. The negotiations haven’t started, with no commitment yet from the hospital.)

MEDINA – The Medina Fire Department often transfers patients at Medina Memorial Hospital to hospitals in Buffalo and Rochester.

The first 22 days of April, Medina FD did 54 interfacility transfers from Medina Memorial, Fire Chief Tom Lupo told the Village Board last week.

Those trips occupy a crew for at least a couple hours, and put wear and tear on the ambulances.

Medina tries to replace an ambulance every two years, and the cost is typically about $160,000. Lupo and village officials are asking Medina Memorial Hospital to chip in for the cost of a new ambulance.

Lupo wants to ask Medina Memorial to contribute $5,000 annually towards a new ambulance, and with that contribution could rise to $10,000 in future years.

The village wants to set up negotiations with the hospital. The Village Board authorized Lupo to represent the village with the hospital.

The Village Board last week voted to declare a 2009 ambulance as surplus and donated the vehicle to the Orleans/Niagara BOCES program in Medina, where the vehicle and engine will be taken apart by students training to become mechanics.

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