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the County plan, noting that the County Plan provides unified <br />professional management and is cost effective using fully <br />qualified fire fighters and volunteer ambulance personnel in <br />conjunction with paid paramedics. This team would be admin- <br />istered by Doug Wright, a man they all respect and trust. The <br />Hospital proposal provides professional management but fails to <br />utilize the full potential of the county agencies, such as Humana <br />Hospital and the Firefighters, and it reduces the Ambulance <br />Squads essentially to an auxiliary of the Hospital. Chief <br />Cavanaugh felt the County's options really have not so much to do <br />with the quality of patient care, which is everyone's prime <br />concern, as to cost effective medical care. Consideration must <br />be given to reasonable costs, and she did not believe that the <br />Hospital plan meets that criteria. Should the Board feel it <br />necessary to oppose the wisdom of the Emergency Medical Council, <br />Chief Cavanaugh believed it would sound the death knell of the <br />volunteer ambulance services. She continued to emphasize costs, <br />stressing that if the Board accepts the Hospital proposal, they <br />will have a fine system but also will have a paid system and will <br />be looking at a 3 million dollar budget as opposed to roughly 1 <br />million under the County plan. She reiterated their respect for <br />Doug Wright and their support of the County plan. <br />Chief Alien next spoke representing the South County Fire <br />District. He felt about everything has been said, and he will <br />not throw stones at anyone. He agreed with everyone that patient <br />care is the number one consideration. He believed the Fire <br />District Plan costwise was close to the County Plan. The Fire <br />Department is not trying to build a monopoly or be a power <br />structure; their primary concern is to give the service the <br />citizens are paying for. They agree the Hospital did a fine job, <br />but they do have problems with their plan because the Fire <br />Department is not included anywhere in it. The Fire Department <br />has in excess of 60 EMTs. These days the Fire Department is <br />deeply involved in the medical aspect and was one of the first <br />15 <br />DEC 2 1986 <br />BOOK .75 PAGE 414 <br />