Published Dec. 10 in the Daily Independent

Portsmouth wants ambulance service in rural Greenup

By BEN FIELDS
Of The Daily Independent

CARDINAL POINT — Mike Adkins wants to make a new home for his Portsmouth Ambulance Service in this rural Greenup County community.

Adkins has been negotiating with the Little Sandy Volunteer Fire Department to put an ambulance station in the fire house, which lies along Ky. 2 in the heart of the county.

``Portsmouth Ambulance approached us looking for a space and we were willing to accommodate them," said Everett Gullett, chairman of the fire department's board of trustees.

Gullett said Adkins has guaranteed that a licensed paramedic would accompany any ambulance sent on a call from the Little Sandy station, something the communities of rural Greenup have not always had in the past.

``On an accident scene, having a licensed paramedic there can make a big difference," Gullett said. ``They can do things that regular (emergency technicians) aren't licensed to do."

Currently, all calls in Greenup east of the AA Highway are handled by Greenup Emergency Medical Services, formerly known as PEASI.

Glenn Porter, operations manager for the Greenup ambulance service, said paramedics didn't always accompany rural calls because things would get backed up.

``You get three or four calls, and you can't have a paramedic on every one, no matter who you are," he said.

But recently Greenup EMS has taken steps to remedy the problem. Late last month, it added another unit to insure a paramedic accompanies an ambulance on all rural calls, Porter said.

``Now all of our ambulances in the county have a paramedic on them," Porter said.

Greenup County Judge-Executive Bobby Carpenter said he would like to see how Greenup EMS does with its recently expanded fleet before another ambulance service comes into its territory.

``They've gotten an additional paramedic out there and that's all those folks on Ky. 2 really wanted," he said. ``(Greenup EMS) heard the complaint, and put forth the effort to respond to that. I think we should let them try for awhile."

Carpenter said he met with officials from Portsmouth Ambulance and what was PEASI about three years ago.

At that meeting, the two ambulance providers verbally agreed that Portsmouth Ambulance would handle calls west of the AA Highway in Greenup County and PEASI would handle the rest.

He said it's been a good system so far.

``It's working well now, and I don't want to mess that up," Carpenter said.

Adkins said both ambulance services have stuck to that agreement, but he would like to add a paramedic truck in the rural part of the county so that Greenup EMS would not have to run from the city of Greenup to respond to rural calls.

Carpenter said he thinks Greenup EMS can have a paramedic truck respond to rural calls quicker, because ambulances can head in more directions from their central location.

Adkins' ambulance service is based in Portsmouth, but a temporary location was recently opened in South Shore in response to the closing of the U.S. Grant Bridge. The span was torn down this summer to make way for a new bridge that should be completed in 2004. The Carl Perkins Bridge, located about three miles down river, remains open.

Adkins would be required to pay utilities and other upkeep costs of a station at the Little Sandy fire department.

``That probably won't be a problem, I just need to determine what those would be," Adkins said.

He also wants to meet with Flatwoods law enforcement officials to discuss the possibility of dispatching rural medical emergency calls to the Little Sandy station.

BACK TO NEWS INDEX

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

COMMENTS

Copyright © 2001 The Kentucky EMS Connection. All rights reserved. News stories may be copyrighted by another organization. Original material may be reproduced provided source is credited.