BTW, firefighters have saved many lives performing paramedic functions.
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So why not just have paramedics respond to calls involving an illness or injury? Why firemen also?
The paramedics main function is rendering rudimentary first aid and transporting a patient to the nearest hospital. If there is a car wreck, for example, firefighters will have the equipment to get the patient out of the car. If the patient needs to be lifted into the ambulance, the one or two paramedics may not be able to lift the person up, especially if it is an obese person. Sending just the paramedics could result in the person dying.
A few years ago, somebody in my neighborhood had a tree fall on them. Good thing the fire department showed up as well as the firefighters with their crowbar were needed to help lift the tree off of the guy.
There’s a fairly complicated calculus involved. The number and location of fire stations affects response time to fire calls, so you can’t get a reduction there to offset the cost of hiring paramedics to handle medic calls. You’d still have the same number of firefighters, but they’d be sitting around waiting for fire calls. Bottom line, in most cities, the cheapest way to provide the service without compromising fire suppression is to have the firefighters do both functions.
Actually transporting patients (i.e. ambulances) is a different issue, and many communities contract with private ambulance companies to perform that service.
We respond to 80-90% medical calls. Normally there is 3 on the truck and 2 on the ambulance.
Two people cannot run a “bad call” effectively. Many times, the patient is wedged between the commode and the wall in a 4’ square bathroom or the wall and the bed. First you have to drag them out to somewhere to work them. This poses a problem when they weigh 300lbs.