Since 2012 South Northants Community Responders has seen a significant increase in the number of call outs. The scheme has grown in size and with the introduction of the scheme car this has enabled our volunteers to be available to their communities more often.
An article on the BBC on the 6th March 2019 touches on the use of responders which improves call times “community first responders who may be closer to the scene and often know the areas better than ambulance crews”
- 2012 to 2018 sees a 586% percentage increase in call outs
Read the full article here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47362797
With more training and support from East Midlands Ambulance Service the scheme volunteers have increased their skill set and are able to respond to more incidents in the community. As the article states the Community First Responder is within a certain vicinity of the call out they are allocated to and more often they are the first on scene.
January 2018 saw double the call outs for cardiac arrests than in the whole of 2012. As the volunteers have gained more experience EMAS have been able to train responders to attend many more types of incident. As South Northants Community Responders have developed their skills they now have 2 levels, Level 2 and Level 3 Responders. More level 3 responders in the scheme has seen a significant increase in the call out numbers.