River Hills/Lake Wylie EMS posted this in their electronic newsletter today (really long but important if you live in York County SC): River Hills/Lake Wylie EMS needs your help and your voice to be heard at the York County Council this week. It requires 3 passing votes for the Hospital and EMS contracts to become Law. The second of the 3 votes is scheduled for October 21 at 6pm, at the York County Council chamber at 6 S. Congress Street in York, SC. We feel these contracts are bad news for the welfare of all residents of York County. Will you help us block the contracts and request improvements? The contract will be binding for the next 32 years. We need to be thinking of the impact to our children and grandchildren. The proposed ordinances, as shared by the York County Managers Office, have catastrophic shortcomings for the residents of York County which are detrimental to York County residents and tax payers. We consider some of the lowlights to be: • For the next 32 years, there is no improvement in response times required for the Western part of the county. It also permits significantly poorer response times in the rest of the county than are in the current contract with Piedmont Medical Center (PMC). • Only PMC can add ambulances to service, unless the already lax response times fail the system for 6 consecutive months. The only exception to this prohibition is the right of any new SC DHEC licensed hospital built in York County in the next 32 years to apply for the right to put an ambulance on the road. There’s no guarantee of approval. • PMC agreement is required, before there can be any improvements in the standard of care required of EMS providers York County. This takes improvements out of the people of the county’s hands, regardless of medical progress that will occur. • PMC can sue the county for failure to enforce, to PMCs satisfaction, the terms of contracts between the county and all of its EMS providers except PMC. These details are not being widely publicized. However, the first vote has already been passed unanimously by the York County Council . We, River Hills/Lake Wylie EMS believe this is catastrophic and are working to stop this now! This contract grants PMC de facto monopoly over York Countys emergency ambulance system for the next 32 years, and gets NO assurances of improvements anywhere in the county. In fact, PMC may demand subsidies from York County tax payers as the price for providing improved response time, should complaints of poor service become loud enough. Why would PMC delay the subsidies by providing better response time, at its expense, that its contract requires? This is a York County issue, not just the about the dwindling numbers of volunteer rescue squads. River Hills/Lake Wylie EMS will hold a Q & A session at our station on Sunday, October 20th, at 4 pm for those interested in learning more. We are located just before the front gate of the River Hills community at 4 Heritage Drive, Lake Wylie SC. Overflow parking is along the grass in front of the community stables.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 22:06:40 +0000