Sorry I have to reply to this coz I am Dutch but have lived and worked (as an EMT) in Germany for almost 8 years... It is exactly the same shit we deal with here day by day. Aditional to that the German system has got (as u know) emergency doctors sent out on the roads to everything that might need some intervention such as intubating, giving drugs etc etc. Dial 112, tell them you have got difficulties breathing and you get an ambulance + an emergency doctor + another paramedic asap and tell them you are in labour to get exactly the same team. Great, isn't it? And we do not have a system to put calls into categories here. It depends on the dispatcher taking the 112 call but from my experience they do not necessarily make sure an ambulance is absolutely needed in most of the cases and that's what really pisses me off. They ask what happened where and that's it. Control here sucks. Sorry but I really prefer the English system and also the training you get as our "paramedics" don't have as many rights. Most of the things are performed by the "Notarzt" (emergency doctor) and as soon as it gets difficult we have to call him, otherwise we might get into trouble.