For years, Gold Cross EMS has basically endured an inquisition by the Augusta Commission once led by a now convicted felon and carried on by a lame duck commissioner who will soon be out of office.
Augustans have shown that when an issue is important to them, they will take the time to exercise their First Amendment rights and redress the government in person.
When it was clear the city lacked the resources or will to cut the grass in medians, parks and cemeteries, multiple citizens showed up to commission meetings to complain. At the upcoming meeting on November 1, there are seven separate delegations prepared to speak about the plaques honoring Jefferson Davis.
Therefore, it stands to reason that if the services provided by Gold Cross EMS were substandard, the lobby of the commission chamber would be standing room only.
Plaques and unkempt grass are one thing, but a life and death matter like ambulance service would be at the top of everyone’s priority list if there was a problem.
Only, there is no problem with the service of Gold Cross EMS.
During the height of the pandemic when hospitals were over capacity, there were no documented cases of people dying due to slow ambulance arrival times.
For years, former commissioner and now convicted felon Sammie Sias and soon to be retired commissioner Ben Hasan have claimed that scores have died due to an ambulance not arriving on time.
On a couple of occasions, Sias and Hasan have trotted people before the commission claiming to have had to wait over five hours for an ambulance to arrive. However, these people provided no documentation of such an event occurring.
And yet, week after week, month after month, the issue gets debated with commissioners veering from demanding Gold Cross use minority-owned subcontractors to demanding the company use no subcontractors at all.
At times, the commission has come close to breaking the law by asking Gold Cross to provide client data that is clearly protected by HIPPA.
All of this breaks down to money. Some commissioners despise having to subsidize the service and want to bring the ambulance service in-house thinking the city will make a profit. The city has already tried its hand at ambulance service and the whole thing was a disaster.
Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. gave a perfect example of how out of touch some of our elected leaders are when he compared ambulance service to ordering fast food.
Does this man really think someone on the line with 911, struggling to breathe, is going to want the 911 operator to go over a list of services and the prices for each available company as if they were deciding on a cellphone plan?
The city needs to step up, pay the subsidy and let Gold Cross do its job. Hasan and his sycophants on the commission need to find a new crusade and let this one go already.
