The Senate Governmental Organization Committee Tuesday unanimously approved a bill by Assemblymember Patty Berg that would protect Californians from the kind of red tape entanglements that slowed the flow of emergency aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Californians do not need red tape during disasters,” Berg (D-Eureka) stated in a news release. “My bill will prevent this by allowing doctors and nurses to help Californians in their time of need.”
Assembly Bill 64 would allow California officials to recognize out-of-state medical licenses of emergency volunteers during a declared state emergency. The bill would also create a system in which California medical professionals could register their credentials in order to volunteer in emergencies in other states.
During the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, volunteer doctors and nurses were prevented from giving aid because they did not have Louisiana or Mississippi medical licenses, the news release notes.
“We must prevent the horrors of red tape during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort from happening in California,” Berg said. “Californians must never wait entire days or weeks for help when it is a life and death situation.”
AB 64 is part of a national effort currently under way to create a registry where medical professionals, dentists, veterinarians, pharmacists and members of the funeral home industry can help in states other than their home state. Kentucky and Colorado have already enacted similar legislation.
Berg’s bill is supported by the California Nurses Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the California Association of Physician Groups, the California Dental Association, the Humane Society of the United States, the California Society of Health System Pharmacists, the California Federation for Animal Legislation, the California Professional Firefighters Association and the Regional Council of Rural Counties.
AB 64 now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“It’s a short jump from there to the governor’s desk,” Berg spokesperson Maria Aliferis-Gjerde said in an e-mail. |