- Conference
- 2004 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 22 December 2003
- Decision
- Carried
Most health professions have training and education programmes that lead to a single qualification and professional title.
However, in the ambulance service the basic training for an emergency care practitioner qualifies you for the post of Ambulance Technician. To become a registered practitioner in emergency care and to use the title of Paramedic, authorized Technicians must take a further qualification to IHCD Paramedic Course standards. They can then apply for registration with the Health Professions Council as a Paramedic.
Conference calls upon the SGE to initiate immediate negotiations with the Health Professions Council, the Ambulance Services Association, the Department of Health and the NHSU to achieve the following:
1.The discontinuation of the title of Ambulance Technician;
2.The introduction of a single training and education programme that would qualify ambulance staff as Paramedics and which encompasses all the skills currently acquired in the Technician’s course;
3.The replacement of the Ambulance Technician title with the title Paramedic. The use of the nomenclature Paramedic by differing types of emergency care practitioner so recognising that Paramedic is a generic term for more than one role or band of post;
4.The recognition by the Health Professions Council of all qualified Paramedics.