The UPMC Advanced Response Unit will continue responding to calls in Butler County after its base location is changed from UPMC Passavant — Cranberry Township to northern Allegheny County, according to UPMC.

Butler County emergency service officials said they were disappointed by the move, which UPMC said is being done to “improve overall availability and responsiveness across the entire North Hills region.”

County emergency service officials said they value the unit. It is regularly dispatched to high level emergencies such as heart attacks and vehicle accidents with entrapment or roll overs, and carries a supply of blood, mechanical CPR equipment and a ventilator, the officials said.

UPMC said the unit is a valuable resource staffed by a paramedic 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and stationing it at the Cranberry Township hospital where it is dispatched twice a day is not a responsible use of the unit.

“Now it will be much more effective being managed by a department at UPMC that focuses solely on this. We will help more people and still help people in Butler County,” according to UPMC.