During the November 18 and December 16 working sessions in Dickinson County, John Hultgren, the director of the Dickinson County Health Department, provided emergency services statistics.
In the November 18 meeting, Hultgren said that EMS saw a 15% increase in the number of calls from its previous record in 2018. He also said there had been a long increase in transfers. distance to Kansas City.
“We’ve been to all of the Kansas City hospitals for at least the past two months,” Hultgren said at the meeting.
While the number of COVID cases is, in general, on the decline, Hultgren said at the meeting, COVID-19 patients are still in hospitals and filling beds, forcing the Dickinson County EMS to travel greater distances. to find an available hospital that has the necessary treatment for their patients.
“So we put a lot of kilometers on our trucks and on our staff as well. It’s not bad during the day, but when it’s midnight and they call us to go to Kansas City, that’s another story, ”Hultgren said at the meeting.
At the December 16 meeting, Hultgren said the trucks were to go to hospitals they had never been to before. The farthest an EMS truck has driven is Kansas City, Missouri.
At the December 16 meeting, Hultgren said EMS completed approximately 2,382 races. They will probably reach 2,500 by the end of the year. December will be a record month for racing, he said, with the previous record month being 2018.
At the December 16 meeting, the Department of Health was fully booked, although it is possible that someone will leave next year, Hultgren said.
David Beam, deputy director of the department, declined to comment, and Hultgren was unavailable for comment during several attempts to reach him.