dragging its feet in officially recognising their profession.

The Bermuda Emergency Medical Technicians Association's members, who include ambulance drivers, firemen and Police officers, are "very frustrated'' at not being acknowledged, president Mr. Arnold Botelho said.

"Since our inception in 1989 we have been trying to become a recognised profession,'' Mr. Botelho wrote in a letter to The Royal Gazette , copied to Health Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness, Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and the Progressive Labour Party.

"We were rejected by the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, and now put on hold by the Department of Health, Social Services and Housing.'' But Government's chief medical officer Dr. John Cann denied the association was being shunned.

And he said he expected legislation to recognise emergency medical technicians to be in place by the end of next January, depending on Cabinet approval.

Dr. Cann said the fact the profession was "relatively new'' to Bermuda was part of the reason for the delay in recognition.

He said ambulance drivers and firemen were only trained to give emergency medical treatment when the hospital began its advanced cardiac life support training course in 1989. Before then nurses were the only ones qualified to give on the spot medical treatment.

Dr. Cann said Government is working on drafting legislation to officially recognise the profession and outline its care limitations, but a number of other pieces of legislation had come before it.

"We are currently working on drafting legislation on nursing home regulations and the Nurses Act,'' he said.

Dr. Cann stressed drafting legislation to recognise emergency medical technicians was not complex. "It is just that there was a backlog of legislation to be looked at,'' he said.

He added the hospital does recognise emergency medical technicians and their qualifications.

Mr. Botelho said he had sent the Ministry a copy of a excerpts from the emergency medical technicians acts of Maine, Florida and Canada.

They outline professional standards, qualifications, establishment of a governing board and registration.