Agenda - 04-21-1981 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 Continued support of volunteer operations brings to the forefront another concern. In the past year, following the intense negotiations to merge ENS in Orange County, the volunteers of the South Orange Rescue Squad have felt an increasing anxiety associated with the county's involvement in ENS. At the time of the negotiations, one of our major objections to the proposed merged system was that it offered little, if any, benefit to the SORS membership or service area. In the period of time since the rejection of the proposed merged system, we at SORS have felt an increasing hesitation on the part of the hospital to organize another MICT course for SORS or the county. We have lost MICT's in the past year and feel-the need to-have_people in-training to fill_these,existing,vacaa- cies as well as others we feel sure will develop as time goes by. There are currently 7-8 people already IV certified who sincerely wish to become ENT certified. In the recent months since the merger was voted down the county has hired a co- ordinator who is apparently working hard to develop Advanced Life Support countywide. We are concerned, however, that one major involvement to the establishment of this is being minimized; and that is that a countywide ALS system is dependent on the existing strong base that has developed at SORS. At SORS Advanced Life Support has been a realitY since July 1978. Unfortunately other than the original class of MICT's there has been only one additional class to be certified. Currently, we have seven NICT's to provide the continuous service the state requires. Those in this group are concerned that this number mai dwindle and increase the burden on those who remain to provide the state man- dated coverage. We feel that the county should work now, in the short term, to strengthen and promote the existing program at SORS, realizing that in the long term this will be the most expeditious means to provide ALS countywide. There is a definite financial implication to the continued existence of the present ALS base in Orange County. Since all initial expenses have been met in terms of communications, on-ambulance equipment and hospital support eq.lipment, the only remaining costs are for training of additional personnel. The loss of the current ALS base in the county through natural attrition and/ol loss of the volunteerism motivated individuals would significantly increase the cost of the establishment of the county-wide system. To date all training and internship pre- cepting time have been accomplished by volunteers on volunteer time. We believe the