Regarding pax vs crew. In a past life doing aeromed, we had medical crew who only joined us on occasion when required.
They were regarded as passengers and not crew (therefore not able to open doors etc. nor trained how to do it, only briefed as you would a normal passenger for emergencies), mainly for the reason that because that particular organisation went through so many crew and they were so transient in the bases they were at, it was impossible to be able to train them all and keep track of their CAO 20.11.
Fulltime rescue crews that are consistently with one organisation, I would expect them to be fully trained in compliance with CAO 20.11. However in the instance that I described above, and also the Pel-Air/Careflight situation, I can understand why they aren't.
morno