Emergency Medical Service

Many citizens from the southern part of Orange County are concerned about the conditions of our Emergency Medical Service (EMS).

On a 911 medical call, a county Fire Department engine answers the call. If transportation appears needed, the EMS ambulance is called. If the paramedics determine that transportation is needed, a private ambulance, licensed to serve the area, is called. While the patient is being stabilized, the order to take the patient to the hospital must wait for the captain in charge or the officiating base hospital to make the decision.

There may be times when the EMS ambulance may provide transport if the private ambulance is unable to make the call. Most often the wait for the private ambulance is ordered. This outline sounds all logical enough. However, delaying snags are often encountered.

This scenario is enacted, regardless of who makes the call, even if the call is made to the private ambulance service. In this circumstance, the private ambulance must notify the fire department, although the private ambulance can immediately proceed to the scene.

Time can be, and is, lost until the patient gets to the hospital.

The system is not responding to the need. The procedures are immutably positioned and inflexible. Failures are downplayed, and subservient to the system. Since the majority of citizens experience only one such emergency in a lifetime, if at all, there exists ignorance of the true state of EMS.

Changes in statutes, administrative functions and public service departments, and cooperation from many involved parties are necessary and must be sought to provide the corrective action needed to improve our EMS. Our safety, our rights, our lives are at risk.

RICHARK C. NOVAK

San Juan Capistrano