The service you describe bears little resemblance to the service I joined in the early eighties. At the time I joined, there was not the immense pressure on resources you relate to in your blog. For example, it would not be unusual to take a vulnerable patient home after discharge and make them tea, and get the heating on. If anything, I would have said that a majority of the population were perhaps too stoic for their own good. Reading this blog and others related to front-line medical care I am truly amazed, and concerned at the shift in its use. As stated above the populace would call an ambulance as a last resort. I sometimes found myself thinking you should have called us earlier. We had some fools who would call us without good cause, but the vast majority were justified, and some of these done relutantly.