I know there's a long tradition of some excellent rear crew working for Bristow/CHC who weren't initially paramedics and was just wondering if this route will be closed off in the future to all those who aren't HCPC registered etc.
All the military SAR paramedics were taken from basic first aid to paramedic qualified in-house (although much was sub-contracted). This is expensive and takes a long time.
The fashion and thinking is definitely to take qualified paramedics and teach them to be winchmen, even if some of this is outsourced too.
A 'year of experience as a winch-op' is as open to abuse and broad interpretation as calling yourself a SAR pilot so some strict professional filters will have to be applied. Not sure about the implications for the technician qualification.