Honestly, besides the cool video I don't know what the point of this topic is? To bash (yet again) the fire/ems, police/ems, sanitation/ems (joke) combination services that make up most systems in the US? This seems to be a very HOT topic around here lately. Having read several threads that have turned into the fire-based ems vs third service/private ems debate I'm personally a little tired of it. In all honesty, I'm with you. I believe a dedicated third service is better than say a fire/ems combination system, but if you want to know everyone's opinion on the matter, just look at the other topics that have erupted into this exact debate.
Even if all 18,500 members of EMTLife hated fire-based EMS, I doubt the entire country would scrap that model and implement third services (especially if the IAFF has a say in it). I mean look at how we view education here. It's almost unanimous around here that educational standards need to improve for EMS to improve, yet it seems that the system has to crash before anything is done about it.
The public and policy makers don't care. As long as an ambulance shows up and there is a person with a bunch of medical equipment, they're perfectly happy. It doesn't matter to them if the ambulance says "Podunk County Fire Dept." or "Podunk County EMS".
