STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2267

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2644

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2644 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES IN THE PUNA DISTRICT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect the public health and safety of Puna residents through the appropriation of funds for a grant-in-aid to the Hawaii County Fire Department to add an emergency medical services unit equipped with advanced life support.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Fire Department of the County of Hawaii; United Public Workers AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; Kalani Oceanside Retreat; Puna Community Medical Center; Hawaii Sustainable Community Alliance; and fourteen individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that access to primary health care in Puna is challenging for the community, since many primary care services are as much as thirty miles away for many residents.  As a result, many of Hawaii County Fire Department's medic units are occupied by or diverted to cover the Puna district, at times leaving Hilo without adequate emergency medical services.  Over recent years, there has been an increase in 911 calls from the Puna district without a commensurate increase in emergency medical services for the district.  This measure appropriates funds for a grant-in-aid to the Hawaii County Fire Department to add an advanced life support ambulance/medic unit to serve the Puna district.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the funds appropriated are for an additional advanced life support ambulance/medic unit to serve the Puna district; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2644, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2644, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair