The Hawaii Department of Health on Monday announced the cancellation of its selection of Falck Northwest Corp. as the winning bidder for Kauai and Maui county ambulance services in December.

“While we are disappointed by Monday’s decision, Falck stands ready to deliver best-in-class ambulances services to Kauai and Maui County,” said Troy Hagen, chief commercial officer of Falck USA, in a statement. “To be clear, our commitment was to continue the same or better level of emergency medical services. We look forward to reviewing the Department of Health’s new request for proposal when it is issued.”

The cancellation was made after a protest by the current service provider American Medical Response, which was not selected, the department said.

Dr. Kenneth Fink, DOH Director of Health determined after review of AMR’s protest that its Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch did not clearly say current staffing levels for advanced life support be maintained in the bid requests issued.

It may have been the branch’s intention to maintain ALS staffing levels, he said, but it was not clearly included in the bids and therefore, there should have been a request for further information. Thus, DOH is canceling the awards and starting over with its request for proposals.

“Based upon my review of how the [request for proposals] were written regarding ambulance staffing, RFIs should have been completed,” said DOH Director Kenneth Fink in a statement. “However, I’d like to reassure the residents of Kauai and Maui Counties that the next RFPs will be clear that the current ambulance staffing level will be maintained. I am accountable for the department, and I apologize for the uncertainty created by the previous RFPs.”

DOH says a new procurement process will begin in the coming weeks, and that current contracts with AMR will be extended to ensure uninterrupted ambulance services in Maui and Kauai counties.

The multiyear contracts originally awarded to Falck included roughly $59 million for Maui and $32 million for Kauai, to begin in late December through June 30, 2027.

Paramedics associations on Maui and Kauai in September expressed concerns over maintaining comprehensive ALS staffing levels statewide. Currently, they said, anyone who calls 911 on any island can rest assured the ambulance responding has at least one highly trained paramedic with all ALS equipment.

Falck, a global health provider based in Denmark, had stated it had no intentions of reducing ALS services, and no reduction had been proposed or discussed.

Honolulu and Hawaii counties operate emergency medical ambulance services within their respective counties, while DOH issues contracts for Maui and Kauai counties, which do not contract for the service.