While Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal finished his march to Washington D.C. on Monday, Beaufort County continues to make plans to beef up its emergency services in the county, particularly the Belhaven area.

Monday, O’Neal finished his 273-mile trek to the nation’s capital and held a rally on the lawn of the Capitol Building to raise awareness for rural healthcare, particularly the closing of Vidant Pungo Hospital on July 1. O’Neal said he, NC NAACP President Rev. Dr. William Barber and U.S. Representative G.K. Butterfield spoke at the rally where about 200 people were in attendance.

Two busses of about 125 people from Belhaven left at midnight on Monday to attend the rally, said Belhaven Town Councilman Julian Goff.

“We hope something will come of it, but we don’t know,” Goff said. “Adam is pushing to get support, and he’s been diligent in his campaign for rural healthcare.”

O’Neal said he met with U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and Butterfield, as well as had interviews with Lawrence O’Donnell and the media network Al Jazeera after the rally in Monday.

“We talked about Medicaid expansion and Vidant Health in detail,” O’Neal said. “I’ve written a letter to Obama and I know he has gotten it. The representatives I’ve talked to are going to continue to put pressure on them (Department of Justice) to look into the issue.”

Monday afternoon, there was a special called meeting for the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to discuss EMS coverage in the county. A letter from Vidant Emergency Services Assistant Vice President Rebecca Ross to Beaufort County Emergency Services Management Coordinator John Pack was presented to the commissioners, requesting “additional authorization…to provide emergency response, care and transport, as a backup EMS provider within Beaufort County.”

In a unanimous vote, the commissioners granted a 30-day franchise for VMT to provide the additional EMS support.

“For 30 days, they’re going to be doing transports of patients out of the Vidant clinic to the Washington hospital,” Pack said. “If they’re gone, then we will answer the calls like we have been doing.”

Pack said the Vidant Medical Transport presence would give Beaufort County Emergency Services the ability to keep its paramedic unit in the area while Vidant is taking care of patients admitted through the clinic that need emergency care.

“It’s basically a second ambulance without us having to pay for it,” Pack said.

VMT’s role will be to support Vidant Family Medicine Clinic operations, by providing an Advanced Life Support and/or Mobile Intensive Care ambulance and staff, which will be dedicated to facilitating transport of patients, requiring emergent or critical care, from the clinic to Vidant Beaufort Hospital in Washington, Vidant Medical Center in Greenville and Belhaven/Pungo Helicopter Landing Zone, according to the letter.