The College of Paramedics has serious concerns over the terminology used in the recent programme entitled ‘Party Paramedics’.
The programme featured the work of the SOS Bus and Team in Colchester over the summer period. The College of Paramedics recognises the important work and community service that this group of volunteers provide to the local community, in particular helping to protect the precious resources of the NHS Ambulance Services and local acute hospitals from the effects of binge drinking and alcohol abuse. However, the Governing Council of the College of Paramedics has had a number of concerns expressed by its members over the repeated reference to the term ‘paramedic’ and ‘paramedics’ throughout the programme and also in the title of the series.
Channel 4 should be aware that the professional title of ‘Paramedic’ is a legally protected one and it’s use is unlawful unless this concerns a person currently registered with the statutory regulator, the Health Professions Council.
The College is seeking confirmation that the volunteers featured and portrayed as paramedics were in fact registered as such. We suspect that this is not the case, as St John Ambulance employs the skills of a wide range of volunteers ranging from first-aiders to registered health professionals such as nurses, paramedics and others. We are concerned that the public may have been misled into assuming that all of those featured in the programme have the skills of a paramedic and are registered as such.
If, as is believed, not all of those individuals represented as paramedics are legally entitled to use the title, then the College of Paramedic seeks a formal retraction from Channel 4.
We will also be issuing the following statement on behalf of registered paramedics:
‘The College of Paramedics wishes to remind the public that paramedics are required by law to be registered with the Health Professions Council in order to claim this title. Members of the public should not confuse the skills of first aiders, assistant practitioners and other healthcare professionals with the particular set of skills and competencies associated with registered paramedics and the paramedic profession.
Full information about the paramedic profession can be found at the College of Paramedics website: www.collegeofparamedics.co.uk and the regulator, the Health Professions Council’s, website: www.hpc-uk.org’
The College of Paramedics has shared the above concerns with the Channel 4, St John Ambulance and the Health Professions Council, as well as the communications regulator, Ofcom.
David Davis,
Acting Director of Media Relations,
on behalf of the Governing Council, College of Paramedics
30th January 2012
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