Choosing Ambulance Service

The following appeared in the editorial section of a West Cambria newspaper:

"A recent review of the West Cambria volunteer ambulance service revealed a longer average response time to accidents than was reported by a commercial ambulance squad located in East Cambria. In order to provide better patient care for accident victims and to raise revenue for our town by collecting service fees for ambulance use, we should disband our volunteer service and hire a commercial ambulance service."

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The presented editorial is logically weak and flawed on many counts.

The first doubt that comes to the mind is about the alleged review that is the cornerstone of the argument. It has not been specified what is the source of the quoted review and how it was conducted. If the review was sponsored by commercial ambulance companies, the neutrality of the assertions would be highly questionable. On the other hand, if it has been conducted fairly by a neutral agency, one may give some weightage to it.

Secondly, it is implied that commercial ambulance service would definitely improve the service. The editorial conveniently forgets that if the volunteer ambulance service is disbanded, it would increase the volume of calls that the commercial service would have to handle. Whether the commercial services have the infrastructure to handle it is not clear. 

Thirdly, it is even possible that volunteer ambulance services take more time only because they get a high volume of calls. Hence, the claim that a longer average time necessarily means bad service on part of volunteer ambulances is not necessarily true.

Finally, it is not clear if the commercial services would gladly handle emergency services in case of a road disaster or fire when they may not get paid. Would they demand money from a man bleeding to death in a road accident or first drop him to the hospital? It is not clear how effectively they would be able to replace free services provided by volunteer ambulances and if people would even want such a service. 

Concluding, the reasoning is weak and cannot be taken on face value. The source of data used to derive the conclusion has not been quoted and many questions have been left unanswered. The editorial seems to be handiwork of commercial ambulance service providers who wish to discredit the volunteer services and get them out of the way.