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Gold Cross outlines 2015 service

When Gold Cross Ambulance takes over New London Ambulance on the first of the year, it will result in the subsidy requirement for the communities it serves dropping 31 cents.

That is what Mark Fredrickson, operations director of Gold Cross, told the Waupaca Common Council during its Oct. 7 meeting.

He presented the ambulance service’s 2015 budget request.

The per person subsidy for Waupaca, Weyauwega and New London is projected to be $12.50 in 2015, Fredrickson said.

The subsidy will drop in spite of the fact that Gold Cross is seeing less calls this year.

“Some of it is hospice,” he told the council. “Runs are just down. If they’re down, that’s good for a community.”

While ambulance runs are down, “as other groups sign on, the numbers get lower,” Fredrickson said.

After Gold Cross takes over New London Ambulance, it will allow the ambulance service to put a paramedic in the city of Weyauwega.

That community currently has emergency medical technicians, he said.

“With the run volume in Waupaca, Weyauwega and New London, we can share resources,” Fredrickson said.

In the city of Waupaca, the amount of time from when someone calls 911 until he sees an ambulance arrive at his home is a little over five minutes, he said.

“That will stay the same,” he said.

There are currently two ambulances in Waupaca, and the secondary unit is regularly used for non-emergency transports from Riverside Medical Center, Fredrickson said.

Gold Cross plans to move an ambulance to Weyauwega and use a different vehicle for those non-emergency transports.

“If it gets busy in Waupaca, we will float the unit from Weyauwega to Waupaca. The same with New London,” he said. “We will be effective with our resources.”

Fredrickson said Gold Cross shares resources in this same manner in Neenah-Menasha.

“We will always float units out,” he said.

When there are special events in a community, Gold Cross will continue to have a presence.

“Nothing is going to change. We will watch this,” he said.

Fredrickson noted that every one of its units has satellite tracking, which means Gold Cross knows when a call comes in, how long it will take to arrive.

He said they are comfortable with how the system will look.

In addition, Fredrickson told the council Gold Cross is working with a local group of about six peole who will become First Responders in the Waupaca and Weyauwega areas.

One of the paramedics in Waupaca will be the group’s liaison.

“It looks like they will start to arrive on the scene around Nov. 1,” he said.

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