I read something about this on another blog - NOT, I hasten to add, in a newspaper or heard it on the news or anything like that. I'm not in favour at all and I'm not even a professional - I am a member of St John Ambulance with a bit more than First Aid at Work and it is really helpful to have someone with you that you can bat ideas off in a tight spot, or just, as you say, to take over from you when you've had the stroppy customer for half an hour. It's going back to the old days, when ambulance drivers were just that - lifters and loaders.