Beginning in January, after reviewing data that showed the number of late ambulances had skyrocketed, the county began tracking such calls.

Now WW has obtained a list of those calls, which the county refers to as “level 0 incidents.” There have been 5,063 such incidents between Jan. 17, when the county first began collecting the data, and May 9, when WW first asked for it.

There’s been around 10,000 calls for medical assistance per month, according to a county report analyzing data up to March. That means, by rough approximation, that ambulances have been unavailable more than 10% of the time this year.

In one instance documented by the county in February, the system became so backed up that dispatchers had 17 calls requesting medical help and no ambulances available to send out.

The county has declined to penalize AMR, despite the fact its ambulances’ response times were out of compliance with its contract. In a statement to WW last month, county health officer operations manager Aaron Monnig said the delays weren’t AMR’s fault.

“The pandemic wasn’t in their control, nor was the subsequent national workforce shortage,” Monnig said. “We’re working on different projects to help the system provide the right care at the right time with the right providers.”

My God. The total lack of personal accountability in Portland is insane.