Citizens of Anderson, SC:

There is a very important County Council vote approaching that will decide the fate of your trusted EMS providers in the county. County Council is intended to vote on letting Priority/Medshore Ambulance Services take over as the sole provider for Emergency Medical treatment in our community. This will eliminate the other 6 squads posted throughout the county. At first this may seem like just another way to save money for the county, but herein lies the issues. The plan intended is to make the ambulances in the county BLS services. This means Basic Life Support for you or your family member and not Advanced needs. The county plans to combat the BLS needs with a set of Quick Response Vehicles equipped with one Paramedic to meet the ambulance on scene if a Paramedic is required. This will not work! If that Paramedic is on another call and the next closest one available is on the other side of the county then you or your family member will be stuck with the lowest possible care you can receive. Most people think this would not happen often, but it is already occurring in the system we have now. Response times are long and other services are having to run 911 calls in different areas and that is with having ambulances equipped with ALS services. If you take away the ALS ambulances that are already struggling, then how can the county expect to handle even more calls throughout the whole county with less people available to respond. This could be a matter of life and death for you or your family and all just to save a pretty penny! I'm going to remain an unnamed Paramedic in the county and have first hand experience in everything that is occurring and as for my family; If they do not receive the appropriate care needed that would be detrimental. I personally will not stand for this and neither should you! Not to mention the amount of EMS providers in the county that will no longer have a job. Many of whom have served as your Provider for Decades with a lot of experience and not new BLS providers fresh out of school. This job requires experience and care towards helping others and not just saving money. 

Our County is currently operating on a budget of around $4.5 million a year and the new proposal will save $3 million. Greenville county is currently using this system on a $20 million budget and is experiencing major flaws. How can anyone expect this to work on an even lower budget and not risk the health of our community. I'm proposing this petition to convince County Council that the well being of our community outweighs the need to spend less money and I need your signatures to show the Council that Anderson County citizens are not willing to risk the lives of ourselves or our families! 

The voting will take place on July 20th, 2021 and is open to the public. I highly recommend a majority of citizens in the community to appear at this meeting. If you wish you can talk prior to the vote to members for 3 min stating your concerns. This is a very important issue and the takeover of our EMS system needs to be stopped!