What is BLS test going to do that is relevant to a EMT basic doing in so cal.
They have no scope of practice.
They are not doing any first responder 911 runs
So
It's sounds time like a bunch of corporate
It's convoluting and fragmenting EMS.
A national union would move EMS to a national or even International standard governed by the WHO. Private ambulance companies do not run EMS. They say they are hurting for personnel and can't keep response times.
Instead of testing put rigs on the road and run a 3 man crew and use that as an evaluation
Remove the profit from corporate EMS. Focus on employees, represented and protected by unions and delivery of EMS to the community.
To many local protocols and interference by corporate EMS. Furthermore it's a waste of time and money by both parties.
Costing national healthcare dollars that could be used elsewhere.
EMTs do have a scope of practice...
In some area they are doing 911 calls (maybe not AMR but in other areas). In the event of a MCI a BLS crew will be utilized. In the event there are no ALS units available a BLS unit will be utilized.
Why not weed out the subpar providers who can not pass a very simple test? Due to the amount of medics that we needed and the amount of medics who tested with us and failed my company took away the written test and let's just say you can easily see what employees did not take the test.
The majority of healthcare is private wo why not EMS? Should we increase taxes to the public who will probably use our service 10 times in their life or the people or who use our service 10 times a week? I don't want my taxes going up for a service I will probably not need very often at all.
If you make a national protocol that all providers must follow, that is going to create issues in a lot of places. Alaska needs a different set of protocols than Brooklyn, New York. LA, CA needs a different set of protocols than middle of no where, CA.
All of the EMS unions in SoCal are crap and do absolutely nothing for their providers. I am a 2 year medic for a non-union company. I have a friend that is a 2 year medic for the same company that is union. In the past 5 years he has not gotten a raise and has super strict prolicies with a union that does nothing and charges them biased on how much you make (so a 10 year medic pays more into the union than a 1 year medic with no change in what the union does). They have tried to vote the union out but the union will group them together with a different company they also cover so they are unable to get the % needed.
Here I am with no union, no union dues, have been getting 4% raises ever since I started with the company, policies are no where near strict.
Also, my company does not set protocols. My county EMS agency does. My company has tried to push for better protocols with the fire unions fighting back.
