Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1399 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for emergency ambulance service in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates area on the island of Hawaii.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the intent of this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates area of the island of Hawaii there are unacceptably long delays in emergency ambulance service. There is a shortage of ambulances on the Big Island, and when the Kau ambulance is already on call, only emergency medical technicians (EMT) are available to respond to medical emergencies.

Although EMTs are qualified to provide basic life support, your Committee finds that it is critical that funds be made available for an additional life support ambulance for the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates area. Therefore, your Committee supports the intent of this measure.

Your Committee amended this measure to insert the correct fiscal year for the appropriation. The appropriation amount has been left blank for determination by your Committee on Ways and Means.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1399, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1399, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.