"Beyond Crisis" is how some health care professionals answered a senator’s query Thursday about the health of the emergency care system in the territory.
After almost six hours of testimony before the Senate Committee on Health and Hospitals during which legislators heard a range of woes from hospital, emergency services and other health officials, Sen. Roosevelt David asked a panel of nurses whether the territory had "reached a crisis in health care?"
The question spurred the "beyond crisis" response from nurses in the audience and those testifying.
"No question about it," David said. "This is frightening."
The most unsettling testimony of the day came from Dr. Herb Saunders, director of Emergency Medical Services. Beyond the fact that there are not enough road-worthy ambulances, he said, the biggest problem is that EMS is short 28 emergency medical technicians, forcing the system to operate at 60 percent. That personnel shortfall has already put more than one person in need of emergency care at risk because of lengthy response times.
On 250 occasions last year, Saunders said EMS dispatchers had to tell emergency callers that no ambulances were available.
"If we don’t address that, people will die," Saunders said. "We’ve been dodging bullets. Eventually our luck will run out."
Although two ambulances have been ordered for St. Croix and two for St. Thomas, they won’t be available until summer. But the biggest need is 28 more EMTs than are currently working.
"The EMTs, particularly on St. Croix, are fanatically dedicated individuals," Saunders said. "All we need now is to get more people."
But the cost of salaries and benefits, estimated at $500,000 to $600,000 a year, could be prohibitive.
Funding for the 911 system and emergency equipment generated by a $1 surcharge on local telephone bills for EMS, Fire Services and the Police Department will help, but accessing the funds is proving to be an exercise in bureaucratic red tape, said Wingrove Creighton, president of the St. Croix EMT Association.
Instead of having ready access to about $130,000 generated from the surcharge for quick repairs of equipment, EMS must request funding as though it were a budget item, Creighton said.
"Streamline the paperwork," he said. "We want to see some constructive changes come about. You can’t have an emergency system work . . . with a petty cash of $500."
Creighton also warned that if money isn’t budgeted in the future for maintaining the new fleet of ambulances, which cost $550,000, the current problems will only continue.
"These ambulances you purchase will have serious problems if you don’t maintain them," he told senators.
