Community First Responders
Community First Responders (CFRs) are volunteers who live within the community and attend life threatening medical emergencies where it is essential for a patient to receive immediate life-saving care. This includes conditions such as:
- cardiac arrest;
- chest pain;
- breathing difficulties;
- unconscious patients;
- fitting patients;
- patients suffering from a stroke.
As well as basic first aid equipment, CFRs carry automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and are trained and equipped to provide oxygen therapy. Having someone in the community who has been trained in first aid, who can reach the patient quickly makes all the difference
Some CFRs have undergone additional lifting training, they carry lifting chairs, enabling them to attend patients who have fallen and who are uninjured but who are unable to get up off of the floor.
First responders are all volunteers and are dependent on donations from the public and businesses to enable them to carry out their vital roles. Increasingly they are receiving support from the South West Ambulance Service Trust in recognition of the vital work they do in saving lives.
The Chipping Campden Rotary Club is currently helping the Community First Responder team to raise £15,000 to enable them to buy a dedicated vehicle for their vital work in the community.
