There won’t be any changes to ambulance services as American Medical Response enters a court-ordered contract extension with Santa Barbara County, representatives told Noozhawk.
Friday was going to be the day that the county Fire Department took over the contract.
There was a contentious bidding process last year between County Fire and American Medical Response for the county contract.
The ambulance company sued after the Board of Supervisors awarded three contracts to County Fire and denied AMR’s application.
A Superior Court judge issued an injunction in December and ordered the parties to continue the current agreement with AMR until the legal case goes to trial, which is scheduled for July.
AMR’s current contract was meant to end Feb. 29, with County Fire taking over on March 1.
“AMR remains the contracted ambulance provider for the County of Santa Barbara while the litigation is ongoing. The public will not see an impact in the delivery of 9-1-1 emergency medical services,” county spokeswoman Jackie Ruiz said Friday.
“There has been no change in service or response times, and AMR continues to serve the communities of Santa Barbara County with excellent patient care at full capacity,” an AMR spokesperson said Friday.
Santa Barbara County is still planning for a multi-provider system with County Fire as one of them, Ruiz said.
The number of staff County Fire hires will depend on how many providers are permitted.
Before the court injunction, the department was planning to become the only provider.
The transition plan included hiring about 120 people, including paramedics, EMTs and field operations supervisors. It already purchased a fleet of ambulances.