St. John Tradewinds News

"We provide the service without any cost to the territory using our own vehicles, which we pay to register and we pay to fuel," said Malacarne. "We have been asking for a contract from DOJ since 2008 and we have heard nothing." When the island's lone ambulance is in use, St. John Rescue also serves as backup to the St. John EMS, Malacarne added. "Rescue performs a number of services including community CPR classes, extraction and repelling, and soon St. John will have its own oxygen generator," he said. "We perform more services than St. Thomas Rescue and St. Croix Rescue, yet we receive less than a third of the funding that they get. We aren't asking you to cut their funding, but we are running day to day with very little funding." "We really need more funding," Malacarne said. Senator Cole promised to take St. John Rescue's concerns to the proper authorities, he explained. "We must find a way to get you more funding," Cole told Malacarne. "You back up the government here and we have to attack this situation." As MKSCHC turns 30 later this month, the health center continues to struggle with limited funding and high costs, explained Dr. Joseph DeJames, MKSCHC Director. "We're celebrating our 30th anniversary this year," said DeJames. "It was built as a hospital and senior care facility, but due to the small population of the island was never really used in that capacity. The morgue is expensive to run and when things break down it's difficult to understand who is responsible for that, DOJ or Schneider Regional Medical Center." MKSCHC officials are considering closing the island's two body morgue due to the high costs and relatively low usage, DeJames explained. "Usually there is a city morgue and the for St. Thomas/St. John District that is located at R.L. Schneider Hospital on St. Thomas," he said. "We've entertained the idea of not operating the morgue on St. John all the time as far as electricity, etc. DOJ usually arrives on the barge and takes the body." "It's only after hours that would be a concern to transport a body to Red Hook to transport it to the DOJ," DeJames said. "In my mind, it should be a full DOJ responsibility." While MKSCHC began offering primary care services to the island's veterans about two and a half years ago, veterans must now go to St. Thomas for all their medical needs, Alvis Christian explained. "Veterans used to be able to go to MKSCHC for treatment but that has now been cut and we don't know why," Christian said. "Veterans on St. John now have to go to St. Thomas for any type of issue or medical need." The service was cut due to a lack of training from Office of Veteran's Affairs officials, explained DeJames. "The issue we faced is that Veterans Affairs uses a federal system of medical records which requires training and background checks, etc.," said the MKSCHC director. "The problem was that not many on staff were certified to use the system and vouchers were not fully implemented. Payment from VA was difficult to get, we couldn't get the training from VA and the volume was not huge." Senator Cole pledged to get answers to residents' questions and share their concerns with government officials on St. Thomas. "We don't know about these issues unless you tell us," said Cole. "We are writing down these concerns and we'll go and find answers for you."