Cocke County Working On Getting New Ambulance Service

Cocke County officials are currently working on a new contract that they hope will result in giving the county a new ambulance provider. Currently First Call is the provider for Cocke county….they were bought out by Priority Ambulance in October. First Call has been plagued by extremely long wait times…including one person waiting 8 hours after calling for an ambulance. First Call was originally given the contract in 2012 and it was renewed in 2017. That contract with the county expires at the end of May. The Cocke County Commission says the old contract is outdated and does not include penalties if the service does not meet expectations. The new contract they are working on will concentrate on response times. They hope to have that new contract ready for the commission to look over at their meeting next month. Once done that contract will be open for ambulance companies to bid on…including the current one.