Alabama county suspends ambulance service: Residents told to expect delayed emergency response

Updated: Jul. 06, 2026, 11:45 a.m. | Published: Jul. 06, 2026, 11:33 a.m.

By Savannah Tryens-Fernandes | stryens-fernandes@al.com

One of Alabama’s most rural counties is operating without any ambulances to answer emergency calls. ... In Greene County, southwest of Tuscaloosa near the Mississippi line, the emergency medical service announced over the July 4 holiday weekend that it had to suspend its ambulance service.

“This difficult decision was reached solely due to a critical lack of funding, which has made it impossible to maintain our ambulances and equipment to mandatory state compliance and safety standards,” Greene County EMS said in a social media statement. ... The county that’s home to just over 7,000 people in the Black Belt, currently has only one vehicle, called a quick response unit, that can take patients to hospitals.

The EMS service said it has reached out to neighboring areas for their help, though many surrounding counties have also faced ambulance shortages. Pickens County, to the north, announced in 2024 that it was down to one ambulance. ... “Mutual aid from surrounding areas has been notified, but citizens should expect significantly delayed response times for medical emergencies due to the travel distances required for outside agencies to reach our communities,” the post said.

Alabama has the second lowest number of ambulance stations per capita in the country, according to a 2023 report by the Rural Health Research and Policy Centers. ... Of the state’s 67 counties, 64 are considered to be in an ‘ambulance desert,’ impacting over 300,000 people, mostly in rural communities. Many rural counties have lost medical services in recent years as hospitals downsized or closed completely.

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Savannah Tryens-Fernandes
Savannah Tryens-Fernandes is an investigative reporter covering health and medical care in Alabama. She joined AL.com as an education reporter and Report for America corps member in 2021, covering efforts to...more

stryens-fernandes@al.com