Faipule concerned over closure of Faga’alu EMS

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Rep. Faimealelei Anthony Fu’e Allen has raised his concern over the closure of the EMS headquarters in Faga’alu by Health officials.

As a member of the LBJ Medical Center Board, Faimealelei said he conducted a site visit to the EMS main office last week and discovered that the whole building was condemned by health officials last September due to the unsafe condition of the building and nothing has been done to fix the problem.

Faimealelei said a woman from Aua called for an ambulance and it was almost an hour before the ambulance arrived. When she asked why the EMS crew took so long to respond, the EMS crew explained that they were coming from Tafuna because their main office in Faga’alu had been closed down by health officials.

Faimealelei said there’s small repair work that needs to be done to resolve the problem, however, LBJ has decided to leave the repair work to the EMS and instead to focus on the huge project of the new extension for the Dialysis Unit.

The Aua representative told members of the House that as of now, there is only one ambulance that is serving the whole of the eastern district.

“We’re talking about the lives of people and LBJ decided to do the extension work first and turn a blind eye on people’s lives,” Faimealelei.

Vice Speaker of the House Fetui Fetu Jr echoed Faimealelei’s concern and asked the House Health committee to pay a site visit to the hospital and find a quick solution to the problem.