The Sunflower County Board of Supervisors have been entertaining the idea of purchasing a fourth ambulance to serve the county. District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald has brought up the issue multiple times in the last month, stressing that the lack of a fourth ambulance or a supplemental ambulance service is frustrating local doctors who have told him they are having trouble transporting patients. “I have been getting calls saying we don’t have enough ambulances in our area to fulfill our needs,” Donald said. “One of the reasons is because we get one to two calls a day from Parchman.” The county’s contracted ambulance service, MedStat, is required by law, Donald said, to respond to emergencies at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, something that he says can occupy an ambulance for hours, especially if the prison has to wait on extra guards for the medical transport. Donald also said that when ambulances transport any patients outside of the county to other hospitals, the driver and EMTs often have to wait hours for those patients to be received by that hospital. “Because of the health desert we have, they can’t just go to Oxford or Starkville because they are already booked up with everyone else,” he said. “I know that will cost about a million a year, but we are going to have to make a decision about what we are going to do because we are going to get caught not having something for someone.” Donald told the board that he has reached out to the superintendent at Parchman, and he hopes that the prison will work with the county to help solve the problem. “We are supposed to have a meeting set up with MedStat, the superintendent and the doctor. We need to discuss this,” Donald said. “We don’t have but three ambulances. This is a 61-mile-long county. And for one or two to be gone to Parchman every other day or sometimes every day…” Sunflower County’s EMA Director and Fire Coordinator Mitch Ramage said, “Parchman is running them pretty good.” District 3 Supervisor Sherry Gaston suggested that the board meet with Parchman about the lack of ambulances and how services are being used. “That is what the meeting is about. I want to invite them to sit and talk to the entire board, because they are causing the problems I need them to come to us,” Donald said. Donald explained during a previous meeting with Parchman that prison officials expressed that they have an ambulance, but they were waiting on the stripes to be placed on the ambulance. The supervisors were told that Parchman would have roughly eight people that would staff the ambulance. Donald asked the board, “Well, why aren’t they using it?” Ramage said, “They are calling in, what would be a transfer out, they are calling them in as if they are 911 calls. And of course, MedStat is going in like it’s a 911 call instead of a transfer out call. And they are there, so they can’t just leave the patient.” Donald said, “Here is a problem bigger than that once we get there sometimes, they don’t have an extra guard. You can’t transfer them out unless they have a guard that will go with them.” Donald said that sometimes the EMT’s have to sit two hours or more waiting on a guard to ride in the ambulance with MedStat. “That is a state problem,” District 2 Supervisor Riley Rice said. Ramage said, “It’s not just waiting on guards. They go to Clarksdale, Greenville, Jackson and maybe Memphis. But then the ambulance has to sit on the wall. It could be two to six hours before they even get the patient, and so they are still tying up that one ambulance.” Donald said, “We are putting our doctors in a pickle. What I am asking us to consider is calling in a secondary service since we can’t afford the million to buy and put on for the ambulance.” Ramage explained to the board a law that took effect July 1 about contracting with ambulance services. When a county gets to zero status for ambulances, they have to be in a mutual agreement with an ambulance service close by to come in and help the existing ambulance service within that county. “I am not sure exactly how it’s worded but that is basically what it is and that law went into effect July 1,” Ramage said. Donald said, “We were going to contract with the company that was beginning to start up in Greenville, and they never did fully start up. We had that agreement. MedStat was okay with that. We never did go back and revisit. We need to go back and revisit it now and bring in that company.” Ramage told the board that a lot of the issue is that some companies can’t staff the ambulances they have. “We are so short state-wide with medics and EMT’s it’s hard to even staff a truck,” he said. Donald said, “Parchman is not the only problem. The major problem is we live in a society now when you have mass shootings all of the time. And we only have three ambulances so if you have a mass shooting, we need to have more than three ambulances in our county, and you need to have a contract to where another ambulance service may come in.” District 5 Supervisor Gloria Dickerson said, “We need to talk with Parchman about why they don’t have enough staff. We can’t cover for Parchman.” Ramage suggested a work session with Parchman would be a good idea. Dickerson said, “We hire staff we can’t afford, so maybe they need to hire some staff they can’t afford.” Rice reiterated that he believes this is more of a state problem with the prison than a county issue. “We are putting this problem on the county and the citizens have to know this. We are talking about raising taxes next year that is a problem that the state needs to help us solve. We can’t solve everyone’s problem,” he said. Dickerson asked the board since they are constantly saying the issue is a state problem how would they approach that. Rice said, “If the state will not come to us, we will go to the state.” Board Attorney Johnny McWilliams said, “(State Rep.) Otis Anthony has been wonderful to help us, and this is a true problem. We should be able to get some sort of legislative relief.” Ramage suggested seeking appropriations perhaps for the fourth ambulance. Dickerson said, “One thing we are going to do is speak with Parchman. Because part of it is them. Then we will speak with our legislators, Otis Anthony and Sarita Simmons, and have a discussion about how they can get something through the Legislature.” The board will likely seek a meeting with Parchman officials in the near future.
