Worse, more than a third of Philadelphians who dial 911 wait longer than the national standard of nine minutes for an ambulance, according to department statistics.
In 2006, only 59.8 percent of ambulance calls resulted in a response time of under nine minutes; in 2009 it climbed to 63 percent, which Butkovitz discounted as a marginal increase.
That's well below the benchmark of a 90 percent successful response time.
Statistics for 2010-11 were not yet available, Butkovitz said, though a Nutter administration spokesman said the percentage rose to 68 percent last year.
"The city is putting lives at risk by failing to do all that it can to have EMS units arrive in time," he said. "EMS is life and death; it has to be a top priority. Right now, it's on a list of to-do items."
While giving the department credit for adding five ambulances in 2008, Butkovitz described a 911 system plagued by "overwhelming demand" and an "inadequate number of paramedics."
The department's statistics support the claim.
From 1999 to 2009, Philadelphia EMS calls skyrocketed from 165,234 to 224,485.
In 2002, the city had 280 paramedics. In 2009, there were 210.
Even though more than half of the calls flooding in are for non-emergencies, the department does not have a priority dispatch system, Butkovitz said. Rather, it operates "robotically" on "first come, first served." And the city's 311 system has not eased the load on 911, he said.
"To have this kind of volume over an extended period of time, and to simply shrug your shoulders as if there is nothing that can be done, is not reasonable in the 21st century," he said.
Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers defended the system.
