By Jessica Cejnar
The Times-Standard
WILLOW CREEK, Calif. — County, tribal and community officials are searching for alternate funding methods so a local ambulance service can continue to serve Willow Creek residents.
According to 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg, the Hoopa tribe has paid for the ambulance service for a long time. But due to decreases in reimbursements and decreases in other areas from the K’ima:w Medical Center, the tribe can no longer afford to provide service for the whole valley, Sundberg said.
“They’re going to need some help if they want to continue,” he said.
Sundberg said he will meet with representatives from the Hoopa Valley Tribe, K’ima:w Medical Center, North Coast Emergency Medical Services and United Indian Health Services next Thursday to discuss short-term and long-term funding ideas for the ambulance. Members of the Willow Creek Community Services District, Karuk and Yurok tribes, Arcata-Mad River Ambulance representatives, an official from Trinity County and members from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services will also participate in the Thursday meeting, Sundberg said. Sundberg added that the most recent meeting to discuss funding the Willow Creek ambulance service was on April 12.
In addition to serving Willow Creek, the ambulance service responds to car accidents along State Route 299 and covers Weitchpec and Orleans, Sundberg said. The ambulance also serves portions of Trinity County. If it weren’t for the ambulance service, emergency medical help would have to come from Arcata or Weaverville, Sundberg said.
The Hoopa tribe has subsidized an ambulance service in Willow Creek for roughly 20 years, but they are increasingly facing financial difficulties, according to Larry Karsteadt, North Coast Emergency Medical Services executive director. The tribal council has requested the county and the community partners they serve to help them with the financial loss of providing the ambulance.
“They are trying to preserve the service,” Karsteadt said. “They just need help.”
The county, tribe and community services district have been exploring a wide variety of possibilities including obtaining increased federal funding from United Indian Health Services to having a specific line item in the tribe’s budget for the ambulance, Karsteadt said. Currently, the ambulance is paid for from funding the tribe receives that is also used to keep its medical center and pharmacy going. The tribe has had to cut from other services in order to keep the ambulance going, Karsteadt said.
Karsteadt added that running an ambulance can cost up to $250,000 a year, and although the volume of patients in the Hoopa and Willow Creek area is low, at least two paramedics would have to be available 24 hours a day.
The Willow Creek Ambulance Service responded to 980 calls in 2011, of which 667 required transportation to a hospital, said Doug Boileau, general manager and paramedic for the Arcata-Mad River Ambulance Service. Boileau, who was reading from a Hoopa Valley Tribe presentation, said out of 980 calls, 313 came from Willow Creek, Salyer and Hawkins Bar. Fifty-five calls came from the Weitchpec and Orleans area, he said.
Boileau added that the Arcata-Mad River Ambulance backs up the Willow Creek Ambulance Service. Arcata-Mad River Ambulance responded to the Willow Creek area on mutual aid calls 42 times last year, he said.
“We’re the closest service to Willow Creek,” he said, adding that it would take a minimum of 45 minutes for an ambulance to drive from Arcata to Willow Creek. “We certainly want them to continue to serve Hoopa and Willow Creek.”
Several Willow Creek residents have expressed an interest in fundraising to generate money to pay for the ambulance, said Stephen Paine, the Willow Creek Community Services District general manager. The fire department is in the process of building a new fire hall that could possibly house emergency medical personnel, he said. Another resident has offered to donate his land for the ambulance service, Paine said.
But those potential solutions are not definite, Paine said.
“The fundraising has not been accomplished,” he said. “The fire hall being built is probably a couple of years away. And the individual who offered his property, it would be necessary to erect a building.”
Another possible solution is for the ambulance to be dispatched out of Hoopa, which is 12 miles away from Willow Creek, Paine said.
“It would put more pressure on our local fire department, but it is certainly an option,” he said.
Although the services district is involved in the discussion, providing emergency medical services is currently not within its jurisdiction, said board chairman Tom O’Gorman. The board could provide emergency medical services, but there would have to be interest in the community, and the Local Agency Formation Commission would have to approve it, he said.
Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Leonard Mastin was not available for comment.
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