Last week, the Beaufort County EMS oversight committee met to discuss, and make decisions about, issues that affect how EMS operates in the county. The committee members touched on many aspects of EMS: franchise fees for non-emergency medical transport services; to which hospital EMTs will transport southeastern county EMS patients; whether Beaufort County EMS should be covering the Belhaven/Pantego area, rather than the county paying an outside service to do so; requesting financials of each squad to account for county review.

By far, the most difficult decision made in the meeting was a discussion and vote to recommend Beaufort County commissioners cease funding Bath Community EMS as of July 1.

It wasn’t a decision made against Bath Community volunteer EMTs, nor was it a power grab by Beaufort County EMS. It was a decision rooted in common sense. Over the past year, the all-volunteer squad had responded to only 24 percent of the calls in its coverage area, mainly due to a roster that has dwindled over the years. The squad currently has only eight members; of the eight members, four members responded to 68 percent of the calls. Because of the response numbers, the county began dispatching Bath Community EMS calls simultaneously to Broad Creek EMS and White Oak EMS, in order to insure the calls were answered.

On the money side of the issue, Bath Community EMS received 100 percent of the money collected from the Bath Community EMS service district. The disparity was addressed in the decision-making process: could the county give Bath Community EMS 24 percent of the service district tax and split the rest with the other squads covering the area? It would be complicated, but it could be done. However, that complication, added to the fact that the Bath Community EMS facility comes with a monthly operational cost of $1,100 and how little response the squad has gotten in its recruiting efforts, made pulling the plug the only common-sense decision. Of course, the decision will not be official until county commissioners approve it.

What the committee didn’t do was pull the plug on the volunteer EMTs of Bath Community EMS, because committee members recognize the value of volunteer EMTs. That’s because many of them are volunteer EMTs, themselves.

Bath Community EMTs will be invited to volunteer with the new Beaufort County EMS squad in Bath. They will remain part of the evolving emergency medical services in the county — and as valuable to the county and its residents as they’ve always been.