
EMS and EMTs Increase In Scope and Numbers
Departments
From the Publishers Desk
Back in 1967, our editor was calling for greater involvement by the fire service in emergency medical service and he has continued that call ever since. His call gained added urgency in 1970, when the National Academy of Sciences jolted the public (and Congress) with a widely publicized report that called for more and better emergency medical services, while labeling accidental death and injury as “the neglected disease of modern society.”
The biggest boost, however, that EMS received was the passage by Congress in 1973 of the Emergency Medical Services Systems Act. This act provided a federal focus on “the neglected disease” and backed it up with grant money for training and equipment. The act, incidentally, has been recently renewed.
As a consequence of this act, thousands of fire departments have instituted emergency medical services. Witness to this development is the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians which totaled 112,933 as of last March. Registration for this group, incidentally, is no simple matter. Applicants must pass a stiff written and practical examination to qualify. And out of a total of 146,304 basic level applications received since the registry started, only 104,739 persons have been registered. Another witness to the advance of EMS is the number of ambulance manufacturers which has increased about fivefold since 1967.
Our editors who have done so much editorially to promote EMS are still at it. In keeping with our now longstanding tradition, the November issue will be devoted exclusively to EMS and all its facets. Ambulances and their associated equipment will be treated at length by our star feature writer, Dick Nailen, and we will be treated to an indepth look at emergency service in St. Paul, Minn. There are other articles too numerous to mention here, but it will be well worth the reader’s while to read them all.