WHEELING, OH – Councilman Vernon Seals and Fire Chief Larry Helms have decided that city ambulances will only take patients to Wheeling Hospital and Ohio Valley MedicalCenter.

This means the new $107,000 ambulance City Council recently purchased — and every other squad in the Wheeling Fire Department fleet — will no longer transport patients to East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry, Belmont Community Hospital in Bellaire, or Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale, according to www.theintelligencer.net.

Jerry Kyle, director to the West Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services, said Wheeling and other cities have the authority to control where their ambulances will travel.