Purpose of the ambulance

It's saving lives isn't it? Well recently I've heard multiple times how ambulances don't save lives its doctors. Now I'm damned sure doctors kill enough people so stands to reason they also must save a few when they get it right but is it as simple as that?

To me the idea of emergency medicine and singling out an individual and saying "They have saved that persons life" is far too simplistic to be taken seriously. I have considered deeply in my time on standby and have conceived an analogy.

Famously amongst my group of friends some idiot student medic once said "I don't have to worry about good CPR because it's the drugs that save people". This is wrong on many levels which I won't go into but then he a typical rich boy, first year moron and taking pot shots at him is like fishing with a daisy cutter,

I think though a similar thought process to this can be applied to emergency medicine.

To me the first aiders/ambulance are the BLS (Basic Life Support). They are the first bit to happen and their job in the whole scheme is to keep the person going while waiting for more advanced techniques. Without the BLS of actually getting to a person and taking them to hospital the rest of it falls on its face.

Then the original doctors/nurses in the emergency department are to me the AED operators. They start working to give a patient a better chance and early access to them is crucial to a good outcome.

Finally the consultants/surgeons/specialist units are the ALS drugs in this scenario. They are their to provide the very utmost for the patient.

Now we all know it is rare (not impossible) for a person to come round with BLS and likewise rarely an ambulance crew/first aider might save a life on their own. AED's can save somebody as well and are much more likely to and likewise the drugs/intubation helps further.

Nobody would ever point to a particular part of CPR and say "you know what, that bit was what saved his/her life" so why do we feel the need to do it with the team that works together for patients.

It frustrates me that people feel the need to pick out an individual as responsible for saving somebodies life when it is in fact a group of people working together to perform their roles. I don't expect in my job to be credited with saving somebodies life but I'll be damned if I'm going to accept that a doctor deserves all the credit.

If the BLS doesn't work and the airway isn't open then the rest is pointless.