Report Title:

Waianae coast; ambulance; funding

WHEREAS, the Waianae Coast is growing and remains one of the more isolated areas on Oahu; and

WHEREAS, the Waianae Coast is home to over forty thousand citizens and grows in number due to recreational visitors on weekends and holidays; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Health's Emergency Medical Services Systems identified the Waianae Coast as an area on Oahu needing additional ambulance service to support the community; and

WHEREAS, the relative isolation of the Waianae coast and lack of emergency medical services on the Waianae Coast, save the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center, contributes to a situation where thirty percent of ambulance calls must be handled by adjacent units; and

WHEREAS, the nearest adjacent unit is St. Francis Medical Center West in Ewa Beach, which is over fifteen miles away; and

WHEREAS, most of the distance between St. Francis Medical Center West and the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center, which is located on the edge of the Waianae coast closest to Ewa, is connected by a highway with two lanes going in each direction; and

WHEREAS, in an emergency medical situation, the sooner an ambulance can deliver a patient to a medical center, the better the chances of survival for that patient; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the legislature supports the funding of a second ambulance to service the Waianae coast; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Department of Health, the Mayor of the county of Honolulu, and the Governor.