RAF Reserves or TA Medic

S

ScottA

Longterm Registered User
Hi All,

As I've said on a couple of other posts I completed paramedic/remote medic training with Ronin out in South Africa recently and my registration should be here soon.

To expand my skills and experience I was looking at joining a reserve military unit and I have both those mentioned above within reasonable traveling distance.

It seems that all units have vacancies and I'd like to ask if anyone has experience of working with or in TA medics or RAF reserve medic units(I mean generaly not specific units)and if so how did you find them.

My end goal is to work in a remote medical capacity though I understand I will need much more experience first.

Thanks very much for your time and help

Scott
 
RAF have a better set up for paramedic as the funding is dead in the army that's why I am doing my paramedic myself good luck
 
Thanks for the feed back guys. Can anyone tell me what the differences between the roles are please. I think if knew more about what I would be expected to do I could make a better informed decision.

I will contact the units directly but I have a feeling they may tell me what I want to hear and I'd like to get some inside info

Thanks

Scott
 
RAF Reserve Paramedic - working generally out of a MERT or CCAST team. Get to see the countryside, pick up some very sick people and transport back to a health care facility.
TA CMT - Get shafted by officers, very poor attitude towards you as you'll be a low rank, even as a professionally qualified healthcare provider. If you deploy with them in a field hospital role then you might be lucky and get on a trauma team but you might also be scrubbing surgical equipment or cleaning (My friends have done both as Para's). If you want some action then you could join a tooth arms unit as a CMT (if there's vacancies) and have the possibility of deploying on the ground and hopefully not getting stuck in there.

Hope it helps.
-=MM=-
 
I recently looked into this and my first obstacle was age 43 was the cut off, secondly the Capt at the field hospital informed me that to be recruited these days one has to be a medical professional i.e. working a hospital. I was advised to speak with the infantry company sharing the facility as a CMT. The rules, qualifications joining a field hospital have changed in recent years.
 
Dont waste your time with the Army,they dont use/respect you as they should.....way behind the times! The RAF reserves on the other hand (which im in) use you,respect you,support you and develop you as they should, if you want action too its the only place to be ive just come back from a Afghanistan tour myself.
Hope this helps.
 
Hi , i have just left the RauxAF as a Paramedic as i left the NHS and they only recruit/employ HPC Paramedics who are working for an NHS ambulance trust.The Squadron is 4626 aeromedical evacuation squadron based until early next year at RAF Lyneham Wilts, it moves to Brize Norton next year.They do not train paramedics but they will put you through the MERT course.The selection process takes a long time and i joined aged 44 , though you have to pass the airmans fitness test(and not the easier recruit entry test) to be deemed fit.As ive said on previous post make very sure that you are confident in your clinical skills before contemplating joining as it is a very demanding role,if you need any more info let me know.
 
Again thanks very much for the feedback I found out today that my registration has been approved so I will make contact with the local squadron soon
 
Dear Scott A,
The reserve medical services in the UK are going through a period of long needed change, see future reserve 2020.
To cut a long story short if you do not hold professional registration with either the GMC, NMC or HPC they will not be very interested. There are some limited opportunities available within medical units for other skills but unless you hold one of these registrations with appropriate experience you'll not be touching patients.

After the last defence cuts the only area to have its manning increased was the reserve medical services.
If you meet the above criteria you'll be in demand.

CCAST do not have paramedics. Only anaesthetic doctors, ICU nurses and techs.
MERT do have paramedics as well as emergency nurses and appropriately trained doctors.

I don't understand why a professional healthcare worker would want to work as a reserve CMT.
The regular CMT's unless attached to an infantry type unit will perform little more than admin roles on deployment in any hospital as they are not professionally accountable and generally have less experience than HCA's.

Reserve CMT's and the RAF/Navy equivilant roles days are numbered. You can't train a CMT over 27 days a year. Better off getting a first aid certificate.
The current review has already identified this and my unit has ceased recruiting and training medics from scratch. I would expected this to become standard over the next few years.

Its a good thing though, getting rid of all the short cuts so patient care is hopefully not compromised by the well intentioned lay person.
I would suggest if you want to get involved caring for military patients, get qualified as a professional, doctor, nurse, paramedic or other and put in the graft.

Don't look to the military anymore for shorts cuts as they are no longer available.
 
Hi Vague1,

Thanks very much for your reply, some very good points made.

I think however I should clear up a few things as I may have misrepresented myself. I am not looking for anyone to train me as a paramedic, I already am a qualified state registered paramedic. Another point I wish to make is that I do not seek shortcuts, it took me just under 3 years to obtain state registration starting from scratch and all done at my own expence.

Your points about removing shortcuts to benift patient care are spot on and I quite agree that it is not possible to turn a lay person into a medical professional on 27 days a year.

Thanks very much again for taking the time to comment

Scott
 
In that case as a HPC registered paramedic I would advise that you join the RAF reserve, they have access to all the Army paramedic roles plus those only open to the RAF, namely MERT. As well as those you can apply for special forces support too.

612 Sqn RAF Leuchars and 4626 RAF Lyneham and one in London I forgotton the name of.

good luck
 
Back
Top