O.K. - I'll put my two cents in here - I've been in EMS for the last 15 or so years, working for various hospitals in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I've also been a F.D.N.Y. buff for as long as I can remember. That being said -
Yes, there are some horrible EMS crews out there that should just really never care for a human being ever again - but the majority of my EMS brothers and sisters provide some of the best pre-hospital care in the world under some of the worst conditions that any EMS system faces.
There are a few Engine companies out there who think EMS is beneath them - the attitude of "if I wanted to drive an ambulance, I'd work for EMS", guys who REFUSE to lift a finger to do anything to help until EMS finally says "O.K., you guys can go now". This seems to be decreasing over the last few years though, for a variety of reasons - but by and large, the fire guys do a great job, and in my experience are always willing to help out. More than once - probably dozens of times working in Brooklyn, the ONLY way a patient was getting out of a four-floor walk-up was strapped to a Stokes, and muscled down the stairs by an Engine while the EMS guys did CPR over their shoulders, under their arms, or wherever we could squeeze in.
The bottom line here - we are all here, doing this job to save lives, be it from a fire or a heart attack. Perhaps if EMS and Fire were each properly funded and we weren't being told that "5 Engine Companies are being shut down so we can put more EMS units on the street", or the other side of the coin, that EMS units are being put out of service to reduce overtime since that money is needed to pay the firefighter O.T....
Lastly, if a certain EMS crew has there head up their ass, or an Engine is being especially jerky, please let's all be mature and talk about it after the job. One of my partners was tired of the Captain on one particular Engine always trying to tell him what medications and treatments each patient needed - this Captain USED to be a volunteer EMT, so he knows how to be an urban medic. Finally at a fire one day, my partner walked up to the Captain and started telling him what size line to bring in, what nozzle to use, and how to attack the fire. Well, some colorful words were exchanged, but the next time they were on an EMS run together, the Captain pulled my partner aside and told him he got the point - never had an issue again.