LETTER OF THE WEEK

Residents of this fine city have cause to pop a few corks. That’s because

at its Nov. 15 meeting, a solid majority of the Costa Mesa City Council

stiff-armed a blatant assault on free enterprise hatched by city fire

officials, firefighter unions and Councilwoman Heather Sommers.

The plot was this: City fire officials -- buoyed by the cheerleading of

Sommers -- sought to boot private ambulance companies out of their

long-standing role of providing city denizens with emergency transport

services to area hospitals. Why? The fire folks claim they can do a

better job by reducing response times to medical aid calls. More likely,

they’re interested in the roughly half-million dollars private ambulance

companies rightly receive each year as reimbursement for the services

they provide.

As it stands now, private companies arrive at medical aid calls along

with paramedic engine companies from Costa Mesa. If emergency transport

is required, the Costa Mesa paramedic hitches a ride on board the private

wagon to continue treatment. The private ambulance company pays the city

a fee for the paramedic response and on-board treatment. The cost of the

trip -- normally reimbursed by the patient’s insurance provider, Medicare

and Medi-Cal -- goes to the private ambulance company.

Is it a perfect system? Certainly not with respect to the efficient use

of city resources. I mean, why do you need a ladder truck to treat a

broken leg?

There is an alternative, however. Rather than drive private industry out

of Costa Mesa, why doesn’t the City Council lobby the Orange County

Emergency Medical Services Agency to allow private ambulance companies to

staff their ambulances with licensed paramedics? That way, firefighter

paramedics will no longer have to ride to the hospital with the patient,

which produces costly down time -- especially if the patient requires a

trauma center (the nearest is Western Medical Center). That means city

fire folks return to service faster and still collect their coveted

“first-response” fee.

It’s a better system with no lost revenue to the city.

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Costa Mesa