I'm confused. What is the unusual part? Of course, the music and graphics are a little silly. And yes, that is the normal width of roads in cities and suburbs. As far as clogged roads, it is the law here for people to immediately pull to the outside of the road and leave the inner lanes (even the other direction) open. When a police, fire or EMS vehicles has lights and sirens on, everyone gets out of the way, and cars that don't have anywhere to go are authorized to run a red light, drive the wrong way or do whatever is necessary to clear the way and then immediately pull over. Is this not the case in the UK? As for getting shot more often, that is something I would have to look at the statistics on. I've never worked a shooting that came from a legally owned gun. From what I've heard, while guns are illegal in England, illegal guns are still available if you know where to look. I've never had a paramedic or EMT shot. Any scenes that sound dangerous automatically have a police car sent to secure the scene before ambulance crew are let in. (And police have training in things like CPR and massive bleeding so they can briefly attend to the patient until the ambulance crew can get there.) As for dace's credit card comment, I'm not sure if it was tongue in cheek or not, but I've run into quite a lot of misconceptions about our health care system, so I'll respond as if it was a serious comment. At no point during emergency treatment is a patient asked if they can afford to pay. They may be asked if they have insurance, and what kind if it isn't urgent, as the ambulance crew knows that somewhere down the line the patient will have to pay, and insurance companies may pay more of the bill if the patient is at the "right" hospital. That is waived in a true emergency, and they are taken to the nearest facility that will handle them. Every hospital in the country must post signs either in the ER waiting or triage rooms informing patients that they have a right to medical treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. True, we don't have a true national system, but we are able to choose from multiple plans if we have the money, and the poor recieve medical insurance from state and national programs. Because there is a charge (but usually little or no enforcement) for an ambulance, people tend to call more for true emergencies, and maternataxis are rare (unless you count complications). I have never in my life sent or recieved an ambulance that took more than 6 minutes. If we are ever tied up, we can turn to a private company to take additional patients. Many hospitals have their own, and private companies often have contracts with nursing homes and other high-volume areas. Most notably, all of our ambulance crew are also firefighters, so when we recieve confirmation of actual flames sighted, 2 private ambulances are called for (one to check occupants of the building for smoke inhalation, and another to wait at the station for the normal ambulance calls), and whenever one of them recieves a call, a private ambulance starts on its way to the station. For a one-mile square area, I had access to 30 ambulances before having to ask the adjacent city to send ambulances. While it would be nice for everyone to have full and complete (including preventative) care, I prefer knowing that I can always have access to an ambulance in an emergency, that it will usually get there within 4 minutes (the magic time they tell us that it takes a major artery cut to bleed to death), even if it takes me a year to pay it off later. I like knowing that we can prosecute people who purposely fake calls. (Claiming their baby isn't breathing when they haven't got a baby, not for someone who might honestly believe something dangerous had happened.) Many community programs exist on a free or sliding scale. Once a year, many local hospitals and other groups sponsor "health fairs", where for as little as $5-10 US (or less if you qualify for low-income assistance, or have insurance which prefers to pay the lower bulk cost for these tests), you can have a full physical, including a blood draw which scans for 50+ different indicators, and your results are given back to you with directions on who to follow up with. ie, 4 pages of nonsense to the layman, with a summary at the beginning that tells them, "your thyroid levels are abnormal. This could be an indicator of a serious, but easily treatable condition. Please show this packet to your doctor. If you do not have one, here is a list of clinics close to your home which offer free or sliding-scale payments..."