Gomer Pylot - I can see your points entirely but if that is the feeling amongst all pilots in the US there is no reason to be wringing hands every time an EMS heli crashes in dodgy weather.
If you accept your system for what it is and believe that it cannot be changed for the better, the only thing you can do is mourn the poor sods who have died and will continue to die in accidents that could (more often than not) be avoided.
Sas, our standard rearcrew complement is a paramedic qualified winchman who is able to intubate and cannulate and give pain relief like morphine - and a winch op who will be ambulance technician qualified - so 2 medically qualified crew in each aircraft. Some of the junior winchmen may only be technician level until they have been in the job for a year or so but they are in the minority.
When you say 'heart pumps and ventilators and LOX systems' what are you actually talking about? Heart pumps and ventilators are the sort of thing only doctors can treat patients with and usually only in hospital - we carry these items when we transfer a patient from one hospital to another and they are quite big and heavy.
LOX - we carry more than sufficient O2 for casualties, along with entonox - is that what you mean or are you referring to something like the S-92 which has its own oxygen system in the aircraft?
How many US HEMS crews carry a doctor on routine recoveries from traffic accidents or the like? I can imagine, as happens here, if you do an inter-hospital transfer, that any appropriate medical staff (consultants, specialist nurses, transplant specialists etc) are taken along.
As for the Strathclyde incident - yes of course we carry a winchable stretcher - its our job! We have the Stokes litter with a vac-mat and as an alternative we carry a Neil Robertson stretcher. The Stokes can be winched vertically. There is also a Kendrick Extraction Device for stabilising spinal/neck injuries.
Don't get too hung up on that incident - a US HEMS aircraft would have been no use either since the problem was the Fire Service management and the ridiculous Health and Safety culture that prevents lifesavers doing their job.
Our standard response time in the wee small hours of the morning is 45 minutes to take off (normally less) plus the time taken to get to the casualty.
I cannot answer the rest of your questions because I was not involved in the incident - if the police had requested SAR or MR then they would have been tasked unless there was a very good reason not to. Some of the emergency response protocols in UK are not that 'joined-up' especially across different agencies and boundaries and it is a constant source of frustration that we are often last on the list to be called instead of the first. The RAF SARF and the ARCCK seek constantly to educate ambulance and police control rooms so they understand out capabilities.