Proclamation 4476—Emergency Medical Services Week, 1976

Each week more than a thousand Americans die as a result of accidents, heart attacks and other medical emergencies because emergency assistance is not available.

For many years, physicians and health professionals have urged improved national services and facilities for emergency medical care. Since 1968, pursuant to the publication of Standard 11, "Emergency Medical Services" in accordance with the Highway Safety Act of 1966, the Department of Transportation has been engaged with improving emergency care at the onset of the emergency and in transit to more definitive care.

This year, a bill extending the "Emergency Medical Services Systems Act of 1973" was passed by Congress and signed into law on October 21. The Act provides for a continued national commitment to the improvement of total emergency care for the sick and injured.

As a result, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Department of Transportation, together with several other Federal agencies, will continue to work closely with States and communities to improve medical emergency services. Although many cities enjoy satisfactory services, the great majority of our communities, especially in rural areas, still require considerable improvement.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning November 7, 1976, as Emergency Medical Services Week.

I call upon the Governors and Mayors and all other State and local officials to assist hospital administrators and physicians, fire departments, public safety agencies and all ambulance services in improving emergency medical services.

I call upon Federal agencies, especially the Departments of Transportation and Health, Education, and Welfare to continue, with renewed emphasis, their assistance to States and communities in accelerating efforts to help those in need of emergency medical, assistance.

I call upon all our people to lend their support to these efforts. We are a traveling nation and none of us knows when we might need help far from home.

Let us affirm that this national legislation is only the beginning of our effort to upgrade and perpetuate this part of our total health care system so no individual in this country will lack help whenever or wherever he needs it.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and first.

GERALD R. FORD