Ealing residents are being encouraged to sign up as volunteer lifesavers as London Ambulance Service launches a new recruitment drive for Community First Responders.
For the first time, the service has opened a London-wide campaign to recruit volunteers who can be sent to life-threatening 999 calls in their own neighbourhoods, often arriving before an ambulance. The move is aimed at strengthening emergency response in local communities across the capital.
Community First Responders are trained in life-saving skills and provided with a uniform and specialist equipment such as a defibrillator and oxygen. Volunteers attend incidents alone, using their own cars, and are dispatched to emergencies including cardiac arrests under normal driving conditions.
Steve Pyne, first responder manager at London Ambulance Service, said: “Community First Responders are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They use local knowledge to arrive quickly and can have a huge impact on patient outcomes.”
Chief medical officer Dr Fenella Wrigley said: “No previous medical experience is needed, just a commitment to give time, compassion and a willingness to learn.”
London Ambulance Service currently has 100 responders and is looking to recruit 120 more this year. Volunteers must live in London, be fit enough to carry equipment and perform CPR, and commit at least 16 hours a month.
More information is available at:
https://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/working-for-us/volunteering-with-us/community-first-responders/
