A couple of aspects of the status of the Ambulance Service as 'essential' rather than 'emergency' came up at UNISON's health conference last month, where I was a delegate. One is the problem of blue lighting - ambulance crews aren't immune from prosecution for going through red lights and so on, because that privilege is reserved for the emergency services. The other is about insurance, which is now the responsibility of individual Ambulance Trusts, instead of being covered by the state, in the way that emergency services are. Turns out that in at least one case, the Ambulance Trust was relying on patients' home insurance to pay out if someone was injured in someone's house, until a paramedic damaged her back and discovered that the patient in question wasn't insured... and the Trust said, "neither were we"! I confess that I didn't understand the details, not being an ambulance worker, but it sounded like a right mess. All that is by way of saying, hi! - cos I've only just found your blog, thanks to a link from Norm Geras. Cheers, Nick / http://4glengate.net