The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will discuss expanding the role of emergency medical technicians, amid mounting concerns over their limited capabilities under current regulations, ministry officials said Friday.
A prospective move to allow paramedics to conduct medical procedures in three specific areas without the supervision of doctors follows the discovery that some paramedics are already performing emergency aid procedures of this kind, the officials said.
Since October, paramedics in Akita, Aomori, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures have reportedly been inserting tubes into the mouths of patients who suffer cardiac arrest, according to officials.