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SALT LAKE CITY — Recognition was given on Wednesday in Salt Lake City to Representative Dan Johnson (R-UT District 4) at an awards ceremony that honored outstanding performance by EMS personnel in Utah.
The award speaks to some of the ongoing work of Johnson when it comes to both supporting non-profits that provide critical services in the valley and also supporting emergency services that are crucial services provided in the state.
Representative Johnson was on KVNU’s For the People program on Wednesday after he was awarded the Friends of EMS Award.
“I think everyone would have loved to be in that room to hear the stories of these first responders and just how heroic they are. What I’ve done….just pales in comparison to some of those events. You just go ‘oh my gosh’, and you really understand how necessary these first responders are,” he explained.
For the last couple of years, Johnson has worked on getting EMS to be the same priority to arrive with law enforcement and fire when someone calls 9-1-1.
“But it was never considered an essential service like fire and police, and so, I put together legislation so that it would be considered that. And then local entities and municipalities, they’re able to choose who they want to have provide the service, the level of service that they want and how they’re going to pay for it. And that’s true now across the entire state.”
He said in the past that’s not how it was organized.
Johnson also ran some legislation that took him some time to get the language right, but he had it ready for this past session, that would be able to provide health insurance for volunteers who provide ambulance in many Utah counties. He said they hope that it will help both to recruit and to retain volunteers.
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