The role of the ambulance service as part of the health profession.

The provincial ambulance services have developed into highly trained professional emergency medical services over the last few years. This rapid development seems to have caught the medical profession by surprise, so much so that in recent months some medical practitioners were of the opinion that ambulance personnel were being trained to do more than they should. Unfortunately many doctors still seem to view the ambulance service as mainly a patient transport service and not as the emergency medical service it has become. It would be in the interest of the patient if a sound working relationship between pre-hospital, hospital and private medical practitioners could be established and that each group becomes familiar with the capabilities of the other. It is equally important that ambulance personnel be welcomed into the health profession of which they are now an integral part.