Report Title:

Emergency Ambulance Service; Hawaiian Ocean View Estates; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds to staff the emergency ambulance service crew for donated ambulance at Hawaiian Ocean View Estates. (SB2399 HD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2399

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

S.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 1


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO EMERGENCY AMBULANCE SERVICE.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that unacceptably long and potentially life-threatening delays in emergency ambulance service have occurred in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates area of the island of Hawaii. With twenty-four-hour emergency room service fifty miles distant, these delays, which can last up to two hours, occur when the Ka'u ambulance--located in Naalehu--is already on call. Although emergency medical technicians with the fire department can provide basic life support until a back-up advanced life support ambulance with mobile intensive care technicians arrive on the scene, there is a world of difference between the level of care that each kind of technician is qualified to provide. Delays in the provision of appropriate emergency medical care because of geography are intolerable and unfair.

The legislature further finds that funding for emergency ambulance services in the past has been a critical issue. Thus, nonprofit organizations involved in emergency services that normally rely on state funding have been required to seek out other sources of funding. One such organization, the Ocean View Community Association, which provides education and social services in the rural district of Ka'u, has expended much energy in this regard and has been successful in receiving a grant for a new ambulance from the New York-based Gerald & Janet Carrus Family Foundation.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for an ambulance crew and operating expenses for supplies, equipment, and vehicle maintenance to operate the ambulance donated by the Carrus Foundation to the Ocean View Community Association.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005 to staff the ambulance at Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, including operating expenses for supplies, equipment, and vehicle maintenance.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2010.