Red Bank Changes Ambulance Service In Town

RED BANK, NJ - Beginning this week, calls for emergency medical services in the borough will be answered by Hackensack Meridian Health Alert Ambulance, replacing the non-profit MONOC, which has been responding in town for more than four years in order to augment the services of the borough volunteer First Aid and Rescue Squad which had difficulty providing a sufficient number of volunteers during day-time calls.

The borough had received two proposals for service: one from MONOC or Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation and one from Hackensack Meridian Health – Alert Ambulance and the borough purchasing agent determined that Meridian was low bidder and could offer coverage 24 hours a day seven days a week for $10,000 a month, not to exceed 120,000 annually.

Borough Administrator Stanley J. Sickels told redbankgreen that MONOC, which had been operating under a contract costing the borough $30,000 a year, came in with a proposal to increase that fee tenfold.

“MONOC told us they can’t continue doing it for $30,000 a year,” Sickels told redbankgreen. “They said they had to go up to $300,000.”

The borough put out a request for proposals for the service and received two bids, Sickels said. MONOC ultimately lowered its price to $275,000 but Alert Ambulance came in at $120,000.

Like MONOC, Alert Ambulance will keep its rig at the former Relief Engine firehouse on Drummond Place, said Sickels adding the borough is not required to contract for EMT services.

“We’ve gotten used to 24-hour ambulance service, which is critical in this town,” he said in redbankgreen. “If people have heart attacks, you don’t want to be waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance.”

As with MONOC, patients served by Alert will be responsible for the fees associated with their emergency care and transport, according to Sickels, though no one will be denied service.

There is a new paid ambulance service in town. Image via Shutterstock.