Improve hiring standards for paramedics.
Improve education for paramedics.
Make everyone a paramedic.
Banish volunteers.
Pay us more.
The tones sound for a chest pains call.
There is no response.
No ambulance on the road, no one coming to the callers aid.
Why ?
We in this rural county I call home can not afford to pay for a 24 hour paramedic, we don't even pay for a dog catcher on a 24 hour basis.
This response is typical of a medic.
They want 24 hour ALS and then complain when the only calls they get are for hang nails and nosebleeds and wish they had a basic crew to pass it off to.
The number one thing that would benefit EMS in this country is putting a stop to canabilism.
EMS is the only field I know that practices the systematic eating of it's young and then complains about the lack of dedicated providers available to obtain higher education.
Volunteers laid the foundation of the modern day EMS service in this country, we never said we could do it all.
Another point for improvement would be across the board standards and teaching for everyone.
In my state it differs by agency and area as to what a basic and a paramedic does, one area to the north of me won't allow a medic to do much without calling in first, a county to the west will allow EMT-B's to start lines and give basic meds.
The hospitals find this very confusing, they never know what kind of treatment the pt. received in the field.
Better pay ?
I can't argue there but with better pay come better expectations.
