Senate bill would pave way for outside medical aid during major event

Consider this.

If a Katrina-like catastrophe hit Georgia it would be difficult for volunteer doctors, nurses and veterinarians to come into the state and help – simply because they are not licensed here.

The Senate today approved SB 315, the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act, which would allow aid workers to temporarily come into Georgia and work during an emergency. At least 10 other states – including Louisiana – have passed versions of the bill.

“In the wake of Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina, we realized that we didn’t have the infrastructure,” said the bill’s author, Preston Smith (R-Rome). “A doctor would have to be licensed in a state and if you practice without a license it is a crime.”

Smith said under the act, doctors, nurses, mental health counselors and veterinarians would be granted a temporary license to work in Georgia during a state of emergency.

Volunteers would have signed up through an interstate database. In the aftermath of Katrina – the hurricane that leveled New Orleans – the city witnessed a tragic lack of medical professionals, because needed volunteers weren’t licensed.