Emergency medical personnel in the United Kingdom

Emergency medical personnel in the United Kingdom are people engaged in the provision of emergency medical services. This includes paramedics, emergency medical technicians and emergency care assistants. 'Paramedic' is a protected title, strictly regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council,^[1] although there is tendency for the public to use this term when referring to any member of ambulance staff.

Emergency medical personnel most often work in an ambulance alongside another member of staff. Typically, an ambulance will be crewed by either a paramedic with another crew member (technician or emergency care assistant), two technicians or a technician with an emergency support worker.

The majority of emergency medical personnel are employed by the public ambulance services of the National Health Service and respond to emergency calls generated by the 999 system. Many are also employed by a growing number of private ambulance companies and voluntary aid societies such as the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance, who provide services such as event medical cover or support to some NHS ambulance services in times of need or under contract.^[2]

Many NHS trusts are in the process of phasing out the ambulance technician / emergency medical technician (Band 5 on the Agenda for Change) role from the services ^[3][4] and replacing it with the emergency care support worker or emergency care assistant roles (Band 3 on the Agenda for Change), and most services are no longer training staff at technician level.^[5][6]

All ambulance services (in England), whether public, private or voluntary, are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, who dictate the expected standard of care.