Air ambulance plan workable
The Maui News:
Air ambulance plan workable
If you think of it in Mainland terms, Maui County is a small town spread over four islands. With a population of only 134,000, government services are necessarily a juggling act, trying to balance financial resources with need.
With something like 10 percent of the population new to Maui in the last 10 years and with many of those newcomers arriving from cities boasting populations of a million or more, sometimes there is a kind of shock that Maui doesn't offer what was available routinely "back home."
The 11th-hour criticism of the state-county air ambulance service could be an example of that kind of newcomer shock. Simply put, the air ambulance service is far from optimum but the need to add some 10 minutes to response time is beggared by the fact that the helicopter will be a lifesaver for individuals who would otherwise have to spend an hour or more in an ambulance that might have taken an hour or more to get to the patient.
The timing of the criticism is open to question. The air ambulance plan has been a hot topic for some two years. Only a hermit or someone who consciously ignores all possible news sources could have missed noticing what the plan was and how it was coming together.
Many old-timers remember the days in which a need for emergency medical attention involved calling the hospital to make sure a doctor was in the emergency room and then using personal vehicles to get the patient to the hospital. It wasn't until the 1980s when ambulances and crews were stationed at strategic points around the island and 24/7 staffing of the hospital emergency room became routine. In the 1990s, a private air ambulance operation failed after two years because small towns don't generate the amount of regular revenue needed to offset the expense of the equipment and the staffing.
The emergency helicopter on track to begin operations on Aug. 1 is a definite improvement in emergency medical service across Maui County's four islands. If it can be improved in the future, so be it, but last-minute sniping, perhaps orchestrated as a political maneuver, is not only uncalled for, it is counterproductive.
Air ambulance plan workable
If you think of it in Mainland terms, Maui County is a small town spread over four islands. With a population of only 134,000, government services are necessarily a juggling act, trying to balance financial resources with need.
With something like 10 percent of the population new to Maui in the last 10 years and with many of those newcomers arriving from cities boasting populations of a million or more, sometimes there is a kind of shock that Maui doesn't offer what was available routinely "back home."
The 11th-hour criticism of the state-county air ambulance service could be an example of that kind of newcomer shock. Simply put, the air ambulance service is far from optimum but the need to add some 10 minutes to response time is beggared by the fact that the helicopter will be a lifesaver for individuals who would otherwise have to spend an hour or more in an ambulance that might have taken an hour or more to get to the patient.
The timing of the criticism is open to question. The air ambulance plan has been a hot topic for some two years. Only a hermit or someone who consciously ignores all possible news sources could have missed noticing what the plan was and how it was coming together.
Many old-timers remember the days in which a need for emergency medical attention involved calling the hospital to make sure a doctor was in the emergency room and then using personal vehicles to get the patient to the hospital. It wasn't until the 1980s when ambulances and crews were stationed at strategic points around the island and 24/7 staffing of the hospital emergency room became routine. In the 1990s, a private air ambulance operation failed after two years because small towns don't generate the amount of regular revenue needed to offset the expense of the equipment and the staffing.
The emergency helicopter on track to begin operations on Aug. 1 is a definite improvement in emergency medical service across Maui County's four islands. If it can be improved in the future, so be it, but last-minute sniping, perhaps orchestrated as a political maneuver, is not only uncalled for, it is counterproductive.
posted by DP at 10:39 PM
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