South African EMS

In South Africa there are 3 different levels of proficiency of Emergency medical technician:

BLS - Basic Life Support (qualification is BAA - or Basic Ambulance Assistant) ILS - Intermediate Life Support (qualification is called AEA or Ambulance Emergency Assistant) ALS - Advanced Life Support (qualification is called CCA or Critical Care assistant)

Recently South Africa's EMS governing body HPCSA (Health Professions Council of SA) has implemented steps to improve the quality of education and they hope to change the EMS curriculum by 2010. These steps would involve removing all the short course (BAA / AEA / CCA) and only having a 1 year nCert (ILS level qualification) and nDip / B-Tech (ALS level qualification).

Currently the BLS and ILS practitioners work on the ambulances, while the ALS work on response car's to improve response time to priority 1 (code red) patients.

All EMS personnel in SA must be registered with the HPCSA and have a valid PDP (public driving permit).