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Sonoma County from the chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is concerned, according to the famed plant wizard Luther Burbank Diverse County, with 1,010,000 acres of land on 1574 miles of scenic roadways, Cinema County is rightfully famed for its agriculture did a culture,

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industry and recreation, as well as for the amazingly successful ethnic and economic mixture of its more than 340,000 residents on for the forward looking philosophy of its local governing bodies. Now we invite you to take a closer look at Sanoma County in the eighties with your

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host Rich McGlinchy. Welcome to a special edition of Sonoma County in the eighties. You know, we have had a lot of emergencies in Sonoma County. We've had floods, earthquakes. We've had hazardous spills, probably many, many more than I can think of right at the moment. But

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emergency services have been very, very important. Not only emergency services as under the direction of people trickle when we've got someone trying to get people move people out of a flood area or something like that. But perhaps the most important area that the County has anything

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to do with what an emergency occurs is emergency medical services. We know that when there is an emergency, people are hurt. We know that things happen. We know that the county cannot use its normal facilities. We know that it has to find some way to get

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medical supplies quickly. It has Teoh, uh, I guess paramedics. The woman who is my guest tonight He's going to tell us all about that, and she is very experienced. Her name is Phyllis Haggerty Murdoch. And she's the Well, actually, she's the coordinator for emergency medical services.

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Or, as we say, the M s coordinator that I get a correct. You got it correct. Phyllis has been, whether it's the time to before and we talked about the subject of emergency medical services, but I don't think we covered it nearly as well as we

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might. And I'd like to get right into the questioning right now. And I hope that you pay very close attention tonight, ladies and gentlemen, because what she's going to tell us is really very important. Very important yours in my survival sometime in the future, Phyllis, that

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leads us up to number one. What is emergency medical services? Well, it's two different things. Emergency Medical Services is the name of our agency. There are several agencies, like mine throughout the state of California and around the nation. But it's also the name of the care

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given to people in Sonoma County by Fire Department first response personnel by the ambulance personnel who may transport you to a hospital, and by the people in the emergency departments of hospitals that you eventually go to when you have a medical emergency. And all of that

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is known as Emergency Medical Services System. And that system is what my agency manages and coordinates in Sonoma County. Let's back up just a little bit. You are a a part of our connected with the public health services. That's correct. The E. M s Agency is

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a division of the Public Health Department in Sonoma County, and throughout the state of California. There are various agencies like mine. Some of them are in public health departments, and some of them are private agencies that have formed regions to fulfill the planning function of emergency

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medical services for their counties. And, uh, our public health services were under Dr Bob Culture. Right? And Dr Holzer's the medical director for the M s agency. A swell as being the county health officer, right? He has many hats. Thursday's your agency? A part of a

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hospital emergency room? No, it's not. We work with all of the hospital emergency room, but we are not affiliated with any one hospital emergency department. And that's a question I'm frequently asked by people who think that the functions that are agency performs are those that belong

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to just a single hospital. And in fact, we worked with all the hospitals in the county. I take the word emergency sort of tends to lead you into that thought that it might be the emergency room. You kind of explain the agencies, in essence, but what

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does the Emergency Medical Services Agency actually do? The State of California writes regulations regarding emergency medical services, and our agency is responsible for implementing those regulations, and those regulations govern how paramedics are trained, what level of care they do give to people in counties. We have

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quality assurance that we have to do for all of the paramedic programs in the county. We do disaster planning for the medical aspect of a situation that could be an emergency in the county. We also coordinate the dispatch of ambulances, and we helped provide training. And

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we're resource agency for people who are interested in providing care. We do certification process for empty ones, empty twos, paramedics and mobile intensive care nurses in Sonoma County. We do other things, but that's a general picture of what we do. Okay, Emergency medical services. Now we

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kind of got a description of what we're talking about. How is it funded? It varies throughout the state of California. In our case, we receive our money from the County General Fund and we are currently the recipients of a grant for disaster planning from the state

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of California through the M S Authority and other areas in the state of California received money from from the counties that they're in as well as private providers. Sometimes the the M s agencies receive state funding in addition and way we haven't done that yet. We

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are a single county, and we in the future may may pursue forming regional regional efforts so that we might be the recipient of some state money, but currently we haven't done that. No emergency medical services. Do those of you in the audience who are finding this

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your first contact with this particular agency? You'll find that, as I said earlier, that's extremely important. Just a few months ago, they were held a that exercise out of the county fairgrounds, which was widely attended by the media but many of the public and certainly agencies

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from all over the state. And it was certainly an eye opening experience. Um, back to our questions here. How does the emergency medical services serve the taxpayer When you need emergency medical care, you need to have the best emergency medical care available and our job and

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one that we take a lot of pride in. And we take very seriously is making sure that the kind of care you receive is the most up to date emergency medical care that you can receive. So we try very hard to be progressive in RMS in

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this county, we try to make sure that the regulations that are adopted are practical for Sonoma County, that the paramedics have adequate quality control, that we have equipment that's up today, and an attempt to work with all the ambulance providers in the hospitals and the fire

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departments to make sure that what we're doing in emergency medical services is state of the art. And that's the way that we feel. We serve the taxpayer best to make sure that you get the most you can for the money that you pay for the service.

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Am I safe and saying from a layman's standpoint that the emergency medical services is doing everything possible to provide emergency medical services? It just what it says in the event of an emergency for the entire county at the highest quality possible. Yes, that's right. That's right.

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That kind of covers in general. OK, you mentioned the ama's is and you re going to control right now. There's a very interesting question. Does your agency sent an ambulance right now? We don't know. We don't That's another question. Happy to say no, we don't Well,

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it's It's a very complicated issue, and there are many, many facets to the rates that are charged by ambulance companies. But the county does not set ambulance rates. Those are private providers or public providers in some instances, and those rates are set individually and not regulated

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by the county. Okay, there's one thing I'd like to say about this. There has been a lot of discussion. There's some controversy over ambulance rates costs in this sort of thing. But I think it's something that ought to be said on behalf of the the providers

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to I know I've been in a couple of life threatening situations the last decade and had it not been for prompt ambulance service, I might not be here with you tonight. I think that in looking at some things, I think there's probably a way to approve

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almost anything, and they're certainly the opportunity to lower cost periodically. But I think before, if anyone, we're thinking in terms tonight of I had a nameless people that I thought was very high or something like that. That may be true, but you must realize that it's

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a It's a lifesaving circumstance a lot of times and I'm not, you know, in the business toe advertised analyst company. But I really think that fairness started be on both sides is the cost for ambulance services subsidized by the county in in some aspects. It is

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in the low call volume areas. There is a small subsidy given to ambulance providers in the county. That's because there is a break even point at which an ambulance must have a certain amount of calls and derive a certain amount of income in order to survive.

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Sonoma County does give a small subsidy to the more rural ambulance companies. The major metropolitan areas in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, don't receive a subsidy. The lower call volume in the very rural areas do, and there's also a small payment available for indigent patients that the ambulances

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have that they can't collect payment on. The county has a cap on that amount of money, but they do. If a certain type of paperwork has submit submitted with documentation, there is some money available to pay for those no pay patients as they're called, he find

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your jump fast, but I love my job. I love my job. You know, you may or may not know and probably don't know that Phyllis agony murdered Murdoch was also a fire woman or fire man. If they were to call it that and I was God

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promised that I would ask her, Are you still chasing far? But I love it, and I wish I could do it more. But yes, I still have a fascination with fire engines, and the people that I work with know that you're you're considered outstanding at the

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job, really were by the people who worked with you. I know what happens when I call 911 for a medical emergency. If you live in the county that is not in the city limits of any any area inthe e in the county, you will get the

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county's dispatch center, and the county Dispatch Center has a has three consoles set up for law enforcement, fire and medical. Depending on what your emergency is, they will dispatch the appropriate vehicle to your house. And if you live within the city limits, your call first goes

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to a what is called a piece up or a public service answering point, and that call is handled by those people and transferred. If you need an ambulance to the County Dispatch Center, where you gets a button pushed and that's as fast as it happens, and

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then ambulances sent that way. So throughout the county, you call 911 and you'll get emergency response that one little thing that that call shows the location where the call came from. It flashes up on a source, tells us right with it. Okay, we're gonna pause for

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just a moment. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, philosophically, Murdoch, And who is the emergency medical service coordinator for the public health department for the county is to know when I will return. We'll talk more about emergency medical services because it's an extremely important something. First, these important

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messages when you live in a helping hand, you give yourself way. Becoming something so much more than words could ever say. A brother to your neighbor and to those in the friend. Won't you give today the United way? Bring happiness again. Love still way are still

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the way the gift is in giving and then living what we say. This is John Denver asking you to make your united way pledge now and give for a better tomorrow for all of us. And thanks. Because thanks to you, it works for all of us.

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United way. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to this edition of Sonoma County in the eighties on this particular program, we're talking about emergency medical services. And we're talking to the key person in that particular situation in account of Sonoma. Phyllis Haggerty murder. And she is the

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emergency service coordinator for the Public Health department for the County of Sonoma. And that sounds like a long title. It is. But then it befits the person because she does a lot of things. A minute ago, when we left, we ask you what happens when I

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call 911 for the medical emergency. But the question I want to ask right after that is when should I or anyone else call 911? You should call night. When Shouldn't. You shouldn't call 911 if you don't have a true emergency. So if you open a can

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of cat food and you cut your finger on the lid, don't call 911 Good. But if you walk out your front porch hemophiliac Well, yeah, it would have to be a big cut. I mean, I would have to be major problem there, but what I'm trying

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to have this size is that you don't use the 911 number for a minor emergency. If you have a situation that someone is seriously injured. You have a fire. You have a law enforcement emergency. You need to call 911 But please don't abuse that number. If

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you have a minor situation that you can take care of at home, your neighbor can help you take care of. We don't want to say not to use 911 if you have an emergency. But the dispatchers on the telephone will be able to help you determine

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what kind of an emergency you have, especially if it's a medical emergency. We use a dispatch triage and triage is French for sorting, so we sort out the calls based on what you tell us. Your problem is, and the dispatcher will send the appropriate level of

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care to you as long as you stay on the line. It's very important when you call 911 to stay on the line and talk to the dispatcher so they can find out exactly what's going on even after they've sent an emergency vehicle to your home. And,

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incidentally, are you perhaps in being trait that's up and it certainly did not mean to insult your intelligence, but we'll talk about 911 You down nine and your Dow won and won again. Many people, believe it or not, have assumed that that was 9 11 and

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it's even been stated in by newscasters at 9 11 And this is incorrect because some people in an emergency have looked for an 11 on the dial and there isn't one, as you well know. So if you're thinking of this emergency number and I'm not really

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being for six years down 911 don't do it unless you need it unless it's a true emergency is, Phyllis said. But if that is just 911 what's the difference between the county's Emergency Medical Services Agency and the county Office of Emergency Services? And I found out

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because I made a mistake last month or two. But you tell the public I'll be happy to. The Office of Emergency Services is the agency that's charged with overall emergency preparedness in the county and disaster management if we have a disaster. Emergency medical services deals with

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what I talked about earlier, which is a planning mechanism that deals with pre hospital response. It deals with planning an emergency medical system and the office of emergency services and my office work closely together, especially in the disaster field, because we are responsible for disaster management

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in the medical arena, they are responsible for the overall management of a disaster scene. So we take care of in disaster situations. Managing those medical resource is within the framework of disaster management done by their office. Now. Office of Emergency Services does many other things besides

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just disaster management. They do a lot of of face to face counseling with people about how to prepare for emergencies, and they talk about hazard mitigation. I think it's pizza favorite term, and that is just ways you can get ready for any kind of an emergency

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to prepare yourself. We do that also only we focus strictly on the medical end of that. We are interested in having people be prepared for dealing with medical emergencies in the framework of an overall disaster. So we want people to make sure that they can take

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care of themselves and their families medically in a disaster, and we might throw a plug in their people. Turk in his agency do a splendid job in their aspect of it, and Phyllis the murder and her M s group do an equally find job on their

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end of it. So we're very fortunate. This county, I think they have both ineffective emergency services organization and unequally effective emergency medical services group that works together. I think maybe the audience would be interested in knowing this. This kind of causes you to paint a little

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scenario, I guess. What does the Emergency Medical Services Agency actually do during a disaster? We have developed something called medical support zones. And you know, you hear about this through the to the emergency channels I present looking right. Okay, go ahead. Now. Excuse me. I just

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wanted That's okay. We go. We work at E E O C. The emergency operations center down in the county center, and I would go and my staff would go to that center. We would make sure that the medical support zones that we have developed and those

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support zones are based around the six hospitals in the county that have emergency departments who have set up an independent means to take care of a certain section of the county. Geographically, those owns have a staff person that is assigned to coordinating the resource is in

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a given part of the county, so they would be functioning independently. I would be at the emergency operations center to talk to to them over the radio if if I needed them and if they needed me. We have, AH, agreement worked out with the Raissi's, which

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is the radio amateur group in the county, and they in many cases, are putting radios in the medical support zone for ST Station areas so that those places can be staffed. We also would be coordinating hospital capability from the E. O. C to find the hospitals

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would be talking to me over the radio telling me whether they were full telling me whether they needed things. I would be working with central dispatch to see if way needed ambulances from other counties to come and provide mutual aid for us. All of those things

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would be something that that my agency would be coordinating from the emergency operations center during a disaster. All right, I've been reading about I think it's called a trauma center being planned for senior with County. What is the trauma center? Well, actually, we're planning a trauma

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system and a trauma center fits into a trauma system. But a trauma system is a coordinated means with all of the hospitals and the ambulances and the fire services to provide the best care, the fastest care to a patient who is the victim of major trauma.

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The goal is to get that patient as quickly as possible from the time they have been injured to a facility that can stabilize them and provide specialized care for their injuries. And in other parts of the state and in other parts of the country that has

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been a trauma center and cinema county, we have a lot of rural area, and so our system is going to be configured based on the fact that we have excellent hospital facilities in this county and we are also going to have a trauma center, I'm sure,

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but the outlying hospitals will be involved in the trauma system as well as the trauma center is what I meant to ask about, because I know the center is involved in that and the system is which he described. That's what. But I wanted you to dio

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Phyllis. Under what circumstances would members of the public actually contact your agency anytime they have a concern about emergency medical services that are provided to them any time they have a question about what kinds of emergency medical services they need or whether they feel that they

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want MAWR, any questions they have about care that's given to them policies that they may read about in the newspaper. Those are the kinds of issues that they can call about or if they want to get involved in the public review of documents that were working

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on, where was your agency located and how. Having help with someone, reach it by phone. We are at 3313 shin eight and that's right across from Community Hospital in the public health building. And they can call and our phone number is 5 to 7 to 758

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and my staff is available. I'm available to answer any questions. We have lots of committees people can get involved in, and I always need volunteers. Always 5 to 7 to 75 That's right. That's the number 5 to 7 to 758 and you say there there are

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available places for persons to serve on your committees. We have a lot of things going on. Then they should perhaps contact you and it's 33133313 Shin 83313 tonight Road is that No one off? 95 for a one for four? Okay, 3312 each and eight Road 95404

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And it would be the emergency medical services. It's part of public health department. So if you're interested in serving on one of the committees, now would be the time or in the very near future, when you're trying to pick up the phone and call Phyllis and

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or a member of her staff, she said, and let them know because they do need input and they do need people to work on these committees. Okay, this is partly what we're talking about here, but I want you to elaborate on this question me about two

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or three minutes. What can the public do other than bottled drink for the committees to be come involved in the system? Is there any other way to help you? They can be sure that they are prepared for dealing with medical emergencies in their own families. they

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really can't important that every family keep basic first aid supplies in their home. It's important that that you teach your Children the basics of of taking care of minor injuries. And it's important that you teach Children and older people when to recognize that they have something

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serious happening that requires the services of an ambulance or a fire department to respond to your home. Those are things that people can do, and I can't emphasize enough that we live in earthquake country and that people need to be prepared for a disaster in their

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homes. Um, a couple of the things I want to ask you fellas. One of them is around the county now. This is a thing of the past, and I want to know if it's still a thing of the past or whether it still exist today at

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one time, around the county they had stashed, if you will, sort of portable emergency hospitals is that sort of thing. Still, yes, way still have those and those are medical supplies that are in semi trailers and they're available in a disaster to be moved around the

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county to provide medical supplies. Two areas that we might have roads that are unpassable so that we can make sure that people do have those supplies. So we were your fire station officer one time. Yes, we did. Uh, it's your happiest. I was kidding about that.

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Uh, but really, you did show us a particular packet of a thing like that And that was one of those emergency type things that could be used. That was a different time. Those are first aid stations and there are 72 of those place around the county.

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There are some of them in fire stations now. They don't have to be moved there. Just sit there for whenever we need them. They were used during the flood in Grenville, and we have 72. We are funding those one more time this year, and we hope

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to be up to our limit. But those are something that's that have been placed there by your support zone committees. And those needs have been addressed through the planning that I've I've talked about earlier committees that I'd like for anybody who's interested to get involved in

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OK, very important. We always goes past I What if I would have given 20 questions. We didn't big trouble. I knew that. Those questions we're gonna take a long time. So I said I gave Rich 20 questions. Says we gotta have some kind of order to

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this. Okay, uh, we have been talking to Lewis Hyde removed, and she is the emergency services coordinator for the Public Health department of the County of Sonoma. We were talking about emergency medical services, and as I've said earlier in the evening, this'd probably one of the

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most important subjects that the public in this county can learn about because we do have emergencies. We've had earthquakes. We've had floods. We've had even had a tidal wave once. We've had hazardous spills. And I think that's very, very important that you hear from you don't

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mind my calling her theme expert Emergency medical services. Phyllis, how did you murder? My name is rich. McClatchy Publicas, Sonoma County. The program rather your the public, The program, Mr. Nova County, The eighties. I hope you'll join us next week. We'll talk to another member of

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the county government, family or a related agency. That is very important to you. And I Until then, the night. Good luck and good help to you all