Help Burton Community First Responders save lives

Helping to save lives in Burton on Trent and its villages

Community First Responders, commonly known as CFRs are volunteers trained by the Ambulance Service. Community First Responders are deployed by the ambulance service to 999 calls where urgent interventions can potentially save the lives of critically ill patients and support the best possible outcomes. We are only deployed to critical ill patients within our local communities.

Incidents that responders are deployed to include but are not limited to, Cardiac arrests, chocking's, breathing difficulties, drownings, heart attacks, strokes, major trauma, major burns, diabetic events and many other serious medical conditions. The highly trained First Responders provide care till such time as an emergency ambulance arrives.

A formal proposal was put to West Midlands Ambulance Service in October 2024 and in November we received the excellent news that we could implement a Community First Responder scheme within Burton on Trent and its surrounding area! This is fantastic news for everyone who lives, works or travels through the communities of our town and local villages.

Community First Responders not only provide emergency care to patients we also provide an important opportunity for members of the public to learn the skills to do Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and how to use public defibrillators more commonly known as AEDs. These skills can save the life of a loved one, family member, work colleague or a stranger! Awareness sessions will be delivered locally within all communities of Burton on Trent and play a very important part in the schemes objectives each year. Sessions are delivered by responders free of charge. We welcome the opportunity to deliver the skills throughout the diverse communities of Burton and its surrounding villages, further providing opportunities for lives to be saved. It is well recognised that high quality CPR, early use of an AED and the rapid intervention of advanced care can increase survival from a cardiac arrest outside of hospital.

Whilst public training is very important so is the availability of defibrillators (AEDs) throughout our communities. The scheme will work with local communities to ensure that all existing devices are operational, registered with the ambulance service and have suitable custodians. Training is key but ensuring that AEDs are available to the public is paramount, the scheme will work with all communities to ensure AEDs are readily available when required. We recognise that training is just one part, without rapid access to public AEDs it is not possible to provide the massive benefit the combination of immediate high quality CPR and AEDs can bring to patient survivability.

The NHS does not provide funding for First Responders, we are dependent upon the kind donations of the public and corporate sponsorship to establish and maintain the scheme. The largest cost is the purchase of an emergency response vehicle and the medical equipment needed to deal with a very wide range of critically ill patients. It is the intention of the scheme to operate more than one vehicle but our initial objective is to secure funds for the 1st unit and then look to longer term opportunities to secure grants to allow the scheme to expand. Formal charity status will be applied for in January 2025, however this does not need to delay us starting to operate. The photo below is kindly provided by an existing scheme within the West Midlands as an example of an emergency response vehicle.

Simon Anderson who has over 30 years experience as a volunteer within blue light services, is coordinating the schemes formation. As an active responder he brings valuable knowledge that will ensure the scheme delivers on its very important objectives. Saving Lives!

Thank you for taking the time to read about ourselves and we hope that you can support this very important opportunity, providing the best possible care to people in our communities when they are at their most vulnerable.

If you work for an organisation that may be able to act as a sponsor please do reach out as we would welcome discussing what can be achieved for our local communities through a strong partnership with the Burton First Responders.

Do you want to hear more about the Burton First Responders? Please follow us on Facebook where more information will be posted in the coming weeks.