<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section possibly contains original research . Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations . Statements consisting only of original research should be removed . (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section possibly contains original research . Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations . Statements consisting only of original research should be removed . (December 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> After a late - night fire run, Los Angeles County Station 10 Fire & Rescue man John Gage (Randolph Mantooth), gets into a discussion with his battalion chief (Art Balinger) about joining a new program called the paramedics . At first Gage turns down the offer because he does not want to become an "ambulance attendant". But in a failed rescue, the victim dies on arrival at Rampart Hospital . Noting the word "rescue" on the vehicle's markings, Gage snorts derisively: "Rescue, hell . All we rescued was a corpse ." As a result, he reconsiders his earlier reluctance and talks to someone about joining the paramedics; it is at this point that he first meets Los Angeles Fireman and future partner Roy DeSoto (Kevin Tighe). </P> <P> At first Gage is still not convinced to join; while he would have the training, he would not have the authority, but DeSoto tells him of a bill before the state legislature that would commission the paramedics, meaning that if the bill had any chance of passage they would have to be ready . DeSoto further states there are presently only six qualified paramedics for the entire population of the Los Angeles area--over 6 ​ ⁄ million people . That convinces Gage to sign the application, and he begins his paramedic training in earnest at Rampart under the tutelage of ER senior doctor Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), neurological surgeon and ER doctor Joe Early (Bobby Troup) and ER head nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London). </P>

When was the wedworth-townsend paramedic act passed and what was it about