Medical Support Officer
The term Medical Support Officer is the name given to Commissioned Officers within the British Army's Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) who are principally responsible for the leadership, command, control and management of the RAMC.
General background
The main role of the RAMC is to provide healthcare to the British Army in barracks and on operations, however leadership, command and control functions within the Corps are undertaken principally by Medical Support Officers. Professionally Qualified Officers (PQOs) within the RAMC, such as doctors, are in the Army to use their professional skills and as such are critical to the delivery of medical treatment. Leadership functions however rest with those officers who have gained a Commission either from attending the full Commissioning Course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), or outstanding soldiers Commissioning from the rank of Staff Sergeant who have attend the Late Entry Officers Course at the RMAS.
Commissioned officers within the RAMC who are professionally qualified are doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists and environmental health officers. Although they pre-dominantly occupy clinical posts, they can assume senior non-clinical command roles such as Squadron Officer Commanding or Commanding Officer of a Regiment later in their careers should they complete the necessary Staff Officer qualifications.
The large medical support regiment structure is historic and was originally intended to deploy mobile facilities capable of treating large numbers of casualties during a full-scale conflict. Due to the radically different nature of operations since the fall of the Iron Curtain it is rare now for medical units to deploy on a regimental basis and have thus restricted to support individual, smaller deployments. Medical Support Officers have found themselves crucial to the development of this new role, and have often found themselves either coordinating casualty evacuation on the ground or from a central operations room. Regimental appointments provide further opportunity for employment at a command level.
Typical Duties of a Medical Support Officer
The early and formative years of a Medical Support Officer are more attuned to the regimental and administrative tasks of a mainstream officer within the British Army, not healthcare management. After Commissioning into the RAMC all officers must attend the Entry Officers' Course (EOC), where they study in depth the medical doctrine employed by the British Army. Basic medical training is given in order to give an understanding of the capabilities of the clinicians within the RAMC. Medical Support Officers do not get involved in treating casualties, but are responsible for leading, directing and coordinating those troops who do treat the wounded. Part of this may require Medical Support Officers to attain certain civilian recognised qualifications, notably Major Incident Medical Management and Support (MIMMS). The first posting is to a Medical Regiment or Field Hospital as a Troop Commander where in addition to typical regimental duties the Medical Support Officer will be involved in the organisation and provision of medical facilities to the rest of the army on military exercises and military operations. Later, at the rank of Captain or Major, Medical Support Officers will find themselves in a higher planning role, either in a Medical Regiment or within a staff headquarters. Those with either a first degree or diploma may apply to undertake an in-service master's degree in topics to do with health service management or disaster relief management.