Citing increased costs and an unwillingness to go along with a government-imposed monopoly, Willow Springs International Raceway owner Bill Huth says that ambulances will be “on-call” instead of standing by during Willow Springs Motorcycle Club (WSMC) races next year. Huth will have EMTs on site during race weekends to treat injured racers. If their injuries require transport to a local hospital, the EMTs will call in the ambulances from Hall Ambulance Co. for the transport. According to county requirements, the ambulances must respond to calls for service within eight minutes. Huth says he would like to have paramedics that he hires standing by, and actually had plans to build a medical center on-site and staff it with paramedics. Paramedics are certified to provide far more extensive medical intervention than EMTs. However, state law requires licensed paramedics to work as part of the emergency medical services operation such as a hospital. Simply put, paramedics work for and as part of a certified medical operation, and can treat but not diagnose. “They are providing medical care under the direction of the EMS director. What they’re doing is that they’re essentially serving as the medical director’s eyes and ears in the field and acting on his behalf,” says Ross Elliott, director of the Kern County Emergency Medical Services department. Huth says the cost of doing business with the current ambulance/paramedic services provider, Hall Ambulance, is greater than he wants to pay. But under Kern County law, Hall has the exclusive right to transport patients to area hospitals. The “exclusive service area” agreements in place throughout Kern County provide a monopoly for the various ambulance companies doing business there. In exchange, those same companies agree to let the county set their service rates, and they are required to respond to calls from everyone in the area, regardless of their ability to pay. Elliott says that having ambulance companies competing to respond to service calls in wealthy areas and ignoring calls in poorer areas would be bad public policy.