Ambos have held the top spot on the  Reader's Digest  Trusted People list for 11 years running, and won't be giving up the title anytime soon.

Mount Isa Queensland Ambulance Service  critical care flight paramedic Gavin Becker said most paramedics didn't dwell on how trustworthy they were on a daily basis, but admitted their rank in the international list made sense.

``Most of us don't think that way, we just go about doing our job and try to be as current and contemporary as we can in practice,'' he said.

``We see people at their most vulnerable so I guess it makes sense.

 ``Then right behind us are the firefighters _ and look where they came, I think they were second.'' 

   Mr Becker said his mind was made up to become a paramedic after he attended a drowning while on beach patrol at the age of 16.

He started out as a volunteer in Toowoomba and rose up the ranks over the past 20 years, fine-tuning the art of caring for Australia's sick and injured.

As one of three critical care flight paramedics in the city, his round extends south to Longreach, north to Karumba and west into the Northern Territory.

Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg  ?said paramedics did an outstanding job keeping Queensland families safe.

``Whether they're attending serious road traffic crashes, critical medical cases such as heart attacks or strokes or even delivering a baby on the roadside, they provide some of highest standards of pre-hospital care in the world,'' he said.