List Archives

Fri Oct 24 09:30:03 BST 2003

--- KMATTOX at aol.com wrote:
> Nick:  Thank you.  You have documented to the world
> why the bay area of 
> California does NOT need a helicopter program.  
> 10-15 minute transport times!   
> Massive cost over runs which are undoubtedly passed
> on to the California public, 
> taxpayers, and insurance carriers.  No wonder there
> was a recall of a 
> governor for state budget deficits.  
> 
> k

No so fast.
I am the trauma director of one of these Bay Area
hospitals (ACMC/Highland General Hospital in Oakland),
and although I see NO need for air ambulance
involvement in our primary area of service (northern
Alameda County, which is directly opposite San
Francisco and borders Berkeley to the north and
Hayward to the south), a brief glance at a map will
show how this county's geographic contour is more
convoluted than a Texas voting district.  There are
areas of Alameda county that are extremely
inaccessible and poorly served by reliable ground
access, areas to which one can only approach by using
overcrowded and extremely slow freeways.  Injury
evacuations from these points by ground, when air
ambulance is radily available, makes no sense at all. 
And it's all the "Bay Area" - from the tops of most of
these hills one can usually see the pyramid shaped
spire of the Transamerica Tower or the towers of the
Bay Bridge.

C. M. Ursic, M.D., FACS
Dept. of Surgery
UCSF-East Bay
Oakland, California

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