Getting a basic life support ambulance out of the fire house door with a qualified driver and emergency medical technician when people call 911.

This is the whole purpose of House Bill 996, according to state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, who said in a recent stop at the Sun-Gazette that he considered it to be one of the most important non-political pieces of legislation sitting in the House today that must become law, or people are going to die.

The legislation would make permanent a law that Hamm sponsored and which Gov. Josh Shapiro signed in 2022, which became Act 72 of 2022.

That piece of legislation said any basic life support ambulance could respond out of its fire house with a qualified driver and one emergency medical technician, Hamm said.

The caveat was this law allowed that to occur only until April of 2027, he added.

As of that time, which is closing in fast by next spring, the law will revert back to say that two EMTS or an EMT and an emergency medical responder (EMR) have to be on the ambulance or they cannot respond, which is more requirement and which some rural companies simply won’t have in place. When that was the law previously in place, most ambulances, for example, were unable to get out of the door because many of the companies struggled to get two EMTs or a qualified driver and an EMT on that vehicle, Hamm said.

What occurred was they were not responding because it did not have a qualified crew, he added.

Hamm’s legislation made it easier for them to respond, the result of which across Pennsylvania ambulances have been responding faster to calls because now they can leave with a qualified driver and one EMT.

H.B. 996 would say – “We are going to make that permanent – a qualified driver and one EMT – who can respond in that basic life support ambulance every single time,” Hamm said.

“The bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that is sitting in the House because if we don’t get it done, we are going to go back to having an EMS crisis across the state,” he warned.

“You are going to have rural areas not be able to get their ambulance out the door because the requirements are going to increase,” he said. “If we don’t get this done we are going to see rural Pennsylvania with an EMS desert and people are going to wait 30 minutes, 45 minutes for help to get on the road and get to them and we can’t afford that amount of time. People are going to lose their lives if we don’t get this legislation done.”

“I am hoping we get H.B. 996 across the finish line and have ambulances respond when people call 911,” he said.