Working together to help save lives in the Medway area

Community first responders have been operating within the South East since December 2000. The schemes were first introduced in an effort to provide early pre-hospital care to communities we have particular difficulty in reaching within those life critical early minutes following cardiac arrest, a heart attack, patients who are unconscious or suffering any other form of life threatening illness or injury.

Whilst South East Coast Ambulance Service performs very well, we have to recognise that there are some communities that are extremely difficult to reach.  Even if we significantly increased our ambulance resources, we would still not be able to deliver the speed of response necessary to get to some patients with life threatening conditions.  This is where the role of the community responder is vital.

Community First Responders are volunteer members of the community who are trained to respond to emergency calls through the 999 system in conjunction with the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Community responders are not a substitute for the ambulance crews, but because they are based within the community in which they live or work, they are able to attend the scene of an emergency in a very short time often within the first few minutes and in the majority of incidents they would be first on scene. The responder can then begin vital life saving first aid before the arrival of an Ambulance, further increasing the patient’s chance of survival.

Since December 2000 over 7000 patients throughout the South East Coast area have already benefited from the intervention of community first responders.

Our aim within South East Coast Ambulance Service is to provide the appropriate care to life threatening emergency calls within 8 minutes.  Sometimes, particularly in the case of cardiac arrest calls, this can still be too long and this is where the community responder role is of particular benefit.

We are not funded by the ambulance service and all our equipment is purchased through kind donations.  Visit our new donations section of the website to make a donation.

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