Gerardney Williams testifies on EMS and bike collision injuries

Okay.

So my name is Gerardney Williams.

I'm a veteran, a United States Army veteran.

I'm a New York City paramedic.

I'm a former New York City correction officer.

I work now in New York City as a paramedic.

And I just want to take time to talk about some things that's going on in the current public safety sphere.

We have a severe staffing shortage in the EMS crisis in the city.

Response times are out of control.

I myself have responded to multiple emergencies with people being hit by bikes, people being knocked unconscious by bikes.

I've seen the injuries that these cause, and I can say that we need EMTs and paramedics.

We need better response times.

We need more ambulances on the street.

As of recently, they've cut.

The New York City have cut ambulance, which has increased response times.

Also, hospitals participate in the New York City 911 system.

They've determined they want to cut ambulances, which makes response times go up.

So these accidents that people are having when they're being hit by bikes, it'll be longer before an ambulance gets to you.

Unfortunately, hospitals are putting profits over patients, and it's a result of that.

Since last year, dozens of units have been taken out of service.

Hospitals are refusing to replace them, making our 911 system less efficient.

Earlier this summer, I responded to two people stabbed on Upper West Side.

I'm coming from the east side of the hospital, right next to Central Park.

It took me about 10 minutes longer than it would have took me if I had an ambulance on the west side.

So these are critical times, and these times where they're cutting Medicaid, we need more ambulances on the street and not less.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next.