The majority of people are blessed to have never needed an ambulance. Some of you have and you know what a utterly terrifying moment that is. Even as a paramedic, I personally know what it feels like to dial 911 and feel completely helpless.

The Baldwin County Board of Commissioners met this past Tuesday and did not allow The Medical Center EMS to be placed on the agenda. Sammy Hall made it clear that he had no intentions of discussing EMS and what provider the citizens of Baldwin County ended up with.

There is a county ordinance in place which allows Oconee Regional Medical System to decide which EMS provider gets the Baldwin County 911 contract. This contract has been held by The Medical Center, Navicent Health for almost a decade. The EMTs and Paramedics have served this county relentlessly. We provide stand-by's for football games, provide staff events at GCSU, teach first responder classes for the county, respond to thousands of 911 calls, and affect many lives. This all comes at a cost of ZERO dollars to Baldwin County. There is not a red cent to change hands between the county and the ambulance service or the hospital.

It is 92.5 miles to Grady's EMS headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. Why on earth would we want someone from 1.5 hours away (with no traffic) to dictate our ambulance service? In Metro Atlanta emergency medicine is a completely different animal. The goal is get to the patient at lightning speed, scoop them up, and race to the closest hospital to dump them off. There is always a helicopter nearby and a trauma center close by. There are hospitals on every corner. Here in Milledgeville that is not the case. There is a hospital within a few minutes of most of us, but they do not offer cardiology, neurosurgical, or trauma services. To many of you, this may mean very little, but to someone who has a dire traumatic injury this means a ~35 mile trip. 35 mile trips are uncommon in Metro Atlanta; therefore, the best interest of these patients is not "urban medicine."

I can't begin to count the years of experience at Baldwin EMS. We have a paramedic with the number of 464 (my number is above 11,000). We have paramedics that were born in this county, like myself. We know what "rip-off-rick's" is and we know about Jay's Cut Through. We know the Haslams can help us out with the fire boat if we have a problem on the water. We know the names of all the buildings out at Central State and Georgia College. Honestly, Grady will most likely not get these decades of experience and these medics & EMTs will keep wearing a Med Center uniform. The checkered trucks will come with a host of new faces who won't know you or your mama.

Lastly, we know the current situation isn't perfect. Trust us! I have ridden from Gray Highway to Milledgeville on an emergency call. It's is no secret and it's the number one complaint across the board is that there haven't been enough ambulances in Baldwin County. As I've said before, we could have 15 ambulances here and there would be occasions where there were 20 calls. Across the country people sometimes wait on ambulances. Currently our director has plans in motion to provide more staff, more trucks, shorter shifts (making less exhausted medics), and a non-emergency discharge truck. The non-emergency truck will help with the burden of returning individuals to places like the local nursing homes and the VA home. This will free up emergency ambulances for 911 calls. We never claimed to be perfect, no service is, but we're trying to be better. We WANT to be the best for Baldwin County.

Please, I don't want a checkered ambulance and a stranger showing up if my family dials 911. Speak up and tell your county commissioners how you feel about this issue. Their numbers are in the link on this page. The next meeting is July 5th @ 18:00 in the courthouse.

-Abi Register

Medical Center, Navicent Health Paramedic & Baldwin County Resident