Latest news with #EmergencyMedicalServices
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Woman drives on wrong side of H-1 Freeway, in critical condition
HONOLULU (KHON2) — A woman is in critical condition following an early morning crash on the H-1 Freeway, just west of the Punahou Street overpass. The crash happened around 3:45 a.m. on Sunday, July 20, and initiated a full shutdown of the H-1 westbound. Lanes have since been reopened just after 9 a.m. How can you avoid a traffic collision? According to the Honolulu Police Department, the 25-year-old female was driving on the wrong side of the freeway. Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said she collided head-on with a 77-year-old male who was driving an 18-wheeler. HPD said he was driving in the #2 lane. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Following the collision, officials said bystanders helped extract the 25-year-old female from her car. Paramedics arrived and 'administered life-saving treatment' to the woman before bringing her to the hospital for critical head and multisystem trauma injuries. The driver of the 18-wheeler was also treated and brought to the hospital for serious shoulder injuries. Check out more news from around Hawaii HPD said the woman was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash and an investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Sinar Daily
07-07-2025
- Sinar Daily
Four injured in road crash involving school van, trailer lorry
The fire and rescue department received an emergency call regarding the incident at about 1.10 pm, before a 'Fire Rescue Tender' and Emergency Medical Services (EMRS) Unit with a strength of 10 members were rushed to the scene. 07 Jul 2025 05:32pm Authorities extricated the trapped victims from the wreckage using special equipment, and all the injured were sent to the Sultan Ismail Hospital by ambulance for further treatment. - Photo courtesy of JBPM JOHOR BAHRU - Three children were injured while a female school van driver was reported injured when trapped in the vehicle in a road crash with a trailer lorry laden with cement near the Bandar Dato' Onn exit, southbound PLUS Highway here, today. Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department Operations Commander, Senior Fire Officer II KUP Muhamad Azizi Zakaria, in a statement, said the 32-year-old lorry driver and 19 other children in the van were reported to be safe. The fire and rescue department received an emergency call regarding the incident at about 1.10 pm, before a 'Fire Rescue Tender' and Emergency Medical Services (EMRS) Unit with a strength of 10 members were rushed to the scene. - Photo courtesy of JBPM He said the department received an emergency call regarding the incident at about 1.10 pm, before a 'Fire Rescue Tender' and Emergency Medical Services (EMRS) Unit with a strength of 10 members were rushed to the scene. "Upon arrival, the team found that there were 24 victims involved, with a male student and two female students injured. Also injured was the 45-year-old female van driver,' he said. He said the team extricated the trapped victims from the wreckage using special equipment, and all the injured were sent to the Sultan Ismail Hospital by ambulance for further treatment. - BERNAMA More Like This
The Sun
07-07-2025
- The Sun
Four injured in Johor school van and lorry collision
JOHOR BAHRU: Three children and a female school van driver sustained injuries in a collision with a trailer lorry carrying cement near the Bandar Dato' Onn exit on the southbound PLUS Highway. The incident occurred earlier today, prompting an emergency response from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department. According to Senior Fire Officer II Muhamad Azizi Zakaria, the 32-year-old lorry driver and 19 other children in the van escaped unharmed. The department received a distress call at approximately 1.10 pm, dispatching a Fire Rescue Tender and an Emergency Medical Services (EMRS) Unit with 10 personnel to the scene. 'Upon arrival, rescuers found 24 individuals involved, including a male student, two female students, and the 45-year-old van driver who were injured,' he said. Special equipment was used to free the trapped victims from the wreckage. All injured parties were transported to Sultan Ismail Hospital via ambulance for further treatment. – Bernama
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New York state legislature passes bills in support of EMS: How they will boost services
New York State Assemblymembers are continuing to push legislative changes to address challenges facing Emergency Medical Service providers across the state. State Assemblymembers Donna Lupardo (D-Endwell) and Joe Angelino (R-Norwich) joined Broome County EMS Coordinator Dave Tinklepaugh at a press conference on July 2 to address the status of several bills meant to support EMS providers statewide. Following the recently concluded legislative session, Lupardo announced three bills included in the "#RescueEMS" legislative package passed both houses of the state legislature. The first bill, she said, removes expenditures for EMS from the limit on real property tax levies issued by local governments, allowing municipalities to fund EMS outside of the tax cap. "Giving municipalities the option to invest more in EMS, without concern for the tax cap, will be a real game-changer for many," said Lupardo. The second bill initially designated general ambulance services as an essential service, an issue that first arose in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. An amended version of the bill passed without that provision, but it does require every municipality to conduct "an exhaustive planning process" related to emergency medical system plans. The process will require counties, cities, towns and villages to work together to assess current service levels, identify existing service gaps, and estimate costs for providing such services. The third and final bill that was passed this legislative session requires the Thruway Authority to issue emergency services permits to ambulance and fire vehicles, making them exempt from roadway tolls. "EMS is something that we view as essential, that we view as an important part of the social safety net, something that constituents rely on," Lupardo said. The legislative package awaits the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul to become law. Previously, the "Direct Pay Bill," which was co-sponsored by Lupardo, was passed in December 2023 to allow providers to be paid directly by insurance companies for transporting out-of-network patients. In September 2024, two other bills were signed into law. The first requires Medicaid reimbursement for ambulance services when a patient is treated at the scene or when they are transported to a non-hospital healthcare setting. The second bill allowed EMS services to store and distribute blood and administer transfusions, allowing for a wider range of options for on-scene treatment. Looking forward, one of the biggest items that Lupardo said she would like to see pass is an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate. "Medicaid is under scrutiny right now and we're worried about cuts, but at the same time they are not getting paid what the service is costing them," she said. "That's our ultimate goal." Another pressing issue, according to Angelino, has been the slow decline of access to EMS, especially in rural areas. There has been a decrease in volunteer EMS and, as commercial ambulances continue to provide services closer to cities, rural communities don't have the same access. "If you just go up the road, 25 or 30 miles, it's very rural, very distant to the nearest hospital and commercial providers won't work out there," he said. More: Tunnel to Towers Foundation pays off mortgage of fallen Binghamton firefighter JR Gaudet With this new bill, Angelino said municipalities can now decide whether EMS is an essential service in their respective community. If they decide it is, they can exceed the 2% tax cap in order to enhance EMS coverage in rural areas. Tinklepaugh said the Broome County dispatch center received 36,000 calls for EMS coverage in 2024. As of July 1, the dispatch center has received 18,000 calls in 2025. "When we talk about the limitations within our system right now and why the legislation is so very important for us, for rescuing EMS, we're finding increased costs, we're finding stagnant insurance rates and we have less and less staff to be able to treat the communities that we serve with an increased call volume," he said. "That certainly is coming to a breaking point for us." In some areas, Tinklepaugh said, there are delays up to 30 minutes for ambulance services that need to go from their own district to neighboring districts as part of a mutual aid plan. Tinklepaugh said the end goal is making EMS an essential service, but the bills that were just passed are a step in the right direction. "I'm hoping that the agencies can truly move this forward and we can continue to provide the coverage that we have and actually enhance it and make it so needs are met for our community," he said. This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: New York state legislature passes bills supporting EMS providers
Daily Maverick
02-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Karoo residents up in arms over plan to move and integrate emergency ambulance call centre
A plan to move the ambulance call centre for several Karoo towns, currently based in Murray Street, Graaff-Reinet, to the call centre at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay has residents up in arms. They say the Eastern Cape Department of Health is putting lives at risk. These towns are the first of a planned call centre move that includes Makhanda and Humansdorp. Communities in the Karoo are up in arms over the planned closure of the Graaff-Reinet Emergency Medical Services call centre. They say merging the facility with the one in Nelson Mandela Bay, 250km away, will put their lives at risk. A document explaining the reason for the move states: 'The Department of Health has embarked on the implementation of an Electronic Call Taking and Dispatch System to enhance operational efficiency and service delivery in Emergency Medical Services (EMS). This technology-driven initiative represents a significant step forward in modernising our emergency response infrastructure.' According to a schedule provided in a signed letter by the department, the ambulance call centre in Graaff-Reinet was scheduled for closure on 1 July 2025, but residents confirmed that it was still open. A message sent to control room staff said the exact date of closure was still to be confirmed. The announcement of the closure was made just over a month ago. 'The Electronic Call Taking Centre based at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay has been fully established and is now operational. In order to optimise the benefits of this system, the Department will be expanding its reach to additional districts,' the document continued. '[The] Sarah Baartman District, due to its proximity and current reliance on outdated, paper-based call-taking methods – which have proven unreliable, particularly due to issues such as cable theft – has been identified as the next priority area for integration. 'The Department will begin by phasing in the control rooms located in Humansdorp, Makhanda (Grahamstown) and Graaff-Reinet. Once integrated, emergency calls originating from these areas will be routed to the centralised Call Taking Centre at Dora Nginza Hospital. Ambulance dispatch will continue to occur from existing EMS stations within the Sarah Baartman District, coordinated via the Push-to-Talk radio system to ensure seamless communication and rapid response times. 'This initiative is part of the Department's broader commitment to leveraging technology to strengthen emergency medical response capabilities across the province.' A letter sent to staff members signed by the head of Emergency Medical Services, AK Munilall, said the development was initiated as part of the 'Presidential drive on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). 'This forms part of a broader objective to leverage technology for improved service delivery, operational efficiency and patient response times. 'The system has been fully implemented at the Gqeberha EMS Station and has shown promising outcomes in terms of efficiency, real-time data utilisation, and call handling capacity.' According to the plan sent to EMS personnel, the closure and integration of call centres will happen as follows: Graaff-Reinet, from July 2025; Makhanda, from mid-July and Humansdorp, from the end of July. Twenty call centre communications staff will be transferred to Nelson Mandela Bay. In their motivation presented to staff members, the department said the benefits of the system were that centralised coordination allowed for uniform, real-time tracking and resource allocation across districts; improved call efficiency and data capture reduced delays in emergency responses; automated logging and analytics enabled better oversight and strategic planning. Formal consultation sessions with unions began on 29 May, and it was envisaged that staff would be transferred from Tuesday, 1 July. Outrage and fear Residents in several Karoo towns, however, are outraged at this development and have complained that no one was consulted. They are worried that the call centre will not have enough Afrikaans-speaking staff to help them. A community leader from Aberdeen, who asked not to be named, said that the current personnel had a good knowledge of the area and where, for instance, there were farms with the same name in the same district. 'Or even here by us there are two streets with the same name, but they are not the same street. Now I can just phone 112 and the person answering the phone speaks to me in Afrikaans, and they also know the story with these two streets,' he said. He said the 10777 number did not work. 'We have two direct numbers here for the people at the Graaff-Reinet call centre, and these numbers always work, otherwise we will phone the hospital and the nurses will find out for us. We also have all the drivers' numbers ourselves. We don't want this new system.' 'Even our family in Uitenhage [Kariega] complains that if you want to talk to that call centre in Nelson Mandela Bay, you must be English or Xhosa,' one resident said. 'Those who struggle with English also struggle with getting an ambulance. They don't speak Afrikaans over there. 'And here we know the ambulances well, so if we can't find someone … we phone … the hospital and they can help us or they can tell us where the ambulance is,' he said. Community leader Ricardo Smith from Nieu-Bethesda said they already waited for an ambulance for up to two hours 'if one is available' and they were afraid that the new plan would cause further significant delays. 'We are afraid that people will die with this new system if it delays the ambulances,' he said. He said there had been no consultation with the community. 'When you talk about this to people, they are so angry that they use swear words,' he said. Petition He said they had drawn up a petition to show their disagreement with the new plan and had been gathering signatures. Mandy Deysel from Jansenville agreed. 'It doesn't matter which political party people belong to, everyone is signing the petition because they are very unhappy about this new development,' she said. She said ambulances in Jansenville were already dispatched through the Graaff-Reinet call centre and could take a long time to respond, so they feared that if instructions had to come from Nelson Mandela Bay, it would take much longer. Dr Eileen Carter from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said the commission was bringing an interdict application against the Eastern Cape Department of Health based on its failure to comply with an investigative report by the SAHRC, published in 2015. The papers in this lawsuit were filed on 16 April 2025. The SAHRC instituted civil proceedings against the department concerning the lack of emergency medical services in the Xhorha Mouth area as well as the department's failure to comply with the SAHRC's 2015 EMS Report. Extensive recommendations were made at the time to ensure the improvement of the service. According to the Notice of Motion, the matter was scheduled to be heard on 20 May 2025 in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Bhisho. MEC for Health Ntandokazi Capa indicated that she would oppose the SAHRC's case. The case was, however, removed from the roll as the MEC had not yet filed her opposing papers, despite being given 15 days to file them. Carter said the SAHRC was drafting further submissions to the court. According to this answer by Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi, in May, 25% of ambulances in the Eastern Cape are non-operational. But even counting the full fleet of vehicles, there are 0.5 ambulances available for every 10,000 residents. The national standard is 1:10,000.
