The Operational Medical Orderly, better known as the Ops Medic is the collective name for the South African Defence Forces Operationally trained Medics. The Ops refers to the Operational area and was used to indicate that the medical orderlies deployed to the Operational area or theatre of operations of the then South African Defence Force (SADF). The Operational area referred to the border or cutline between Namibia and Angola where the Angolan Bush War conflict or border war was taking place from the 1970s to 1989.
The Ops medics was distinctly different from the Sick Bay and Hospital medics of the time because Ops Medics were trained in infantry and mechanised fighting doctrines and other doctrines as necessary to deploy with the armed forces of South Africa.
Until the early 1990s the South African Surgeon General authorised Ops Medics trained by and qualified in the SADF/South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to work within their scope of practice while treating SADF/SANDF personnel. In the late 1990s the Health Professions Council required all practising Ops medics to register with the council to practice in South Africa and during South African Military operations worldwide.
Ops Medics are carried on a separate Operational Emergency Care Orderly roll of the Professional Board for Emergency Care of the HPCSA, although many have chosen to either dual register as Ambulance Emergency Assistants (Intermediate Life Support, Civilian Qualification) or to forgo registration as Operational Emergency Medical Orderlies in favour of registering as AEA's instead. This is motivated by the OECO qualification frequently being poorly understood in the civilian emergency care community, so Ops Medics wishing to moonlight while in service, or seeking EMS employment after leaving military service often find it easier to do so when registered as an AEA rather than as an OECO.
The structure of OECO training has changed over the years, and is no longer a stand-alone course as was previously the case. Currently prospective OECOs are trained first to the civilian Basic (BAA) and Intermediate Life Support (AEA) standard, and are then undergoing further military emergency care training to qualify them as a fully-fledged OECO. In line with the move away from the "short-course" emergency care programmes in emergency care in South Africa, the OECO course was phased out by 2015, replaced in its entirety by the newly introduced 2-year Emergency Care Technician national certificate. As is currently the case with OECO training, military ECTs are first trained in the baseline civilian qualification, and then undergo further military specific emergency care training. The ECT course was introduced in the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) in 2008, and replaced the OECO course entirely by 2016.[1]
^HPCSA Professional Boards: Emergency care regulations
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