The Minnesota EMS Task Force held a field hearing about to the public and people working in Emergency Medical Services. They heard from residents in Mountain Iron about EMS issues dealing with staffing, lack of funds, & more.

Minnesota Rep. Dave Lislegard from Aurora, said one of the issues Northeastern Minnesota people have is waiting considerably longer for EMS to respond to a crisis.

“It’s the call time, the response time, the ability to have funds,” Rep. Lislegard said. “When you have when you have organizations and volunteers actually hosting pancake feasts and other fundraisers to be able to fund a program to be able to provide a service. We have a problem.”

Paul Peltier, the executive director of RAMS, said this public hearing with the EMS Task Force is a vital first step to seeing changes.

“These issues are not going away and they’re not unique only to our region,” Peltier said. “However, it’s extremely important that our region be able to see what our needs are. And that’s the reason we’re here today, is to listen to people, their live experience, their lived experience, and hopefully carry that informed discussion into the legislative session.”

The next field hearing with the EMS Task Force will be taking place at the Grant County Government Center in Elbow Lake Minnesota on January 9th.

Also for more information about the EMS Task Force you can read more here. However, for more stories about Northeastern Minnesota you can read more here.