Volunteer Community First Responders

Community First Responders (CFR’s) are local unpaid volunteers who are trained and dispatched by the NHS ambulance service to attend life threatening medical emergencies and provide life support until the arrival of the local statutory NHS Ambulance Service.

Research has shown that in cases of cardiac arrest, fast access to emergency life support skills and equipment can increase pre-hospital survival rates from 5% to as much as 74%. There is also sufficient evidence that in the event of a cardiac arrest where the casualty’s heart is in a shockable rhythm, for every minute that passes without defibrillation their chance of survival decreases by 10%.

Volunteer Community First Responders usually use their own cars, no blue lights or sirens but being local means they can be on scene with a casualty in just a few minutes. They provide vital support until the arrival of the NHS Ambulance Service sometimes making the difference between life and death.

We are incredibly proud of our Volunteer Community First Responders (CFR’s). These people are trained by us to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work. Being local often allows these amazing people to reach a casualty in the first few vital minutes before the ambulance arrives.

Their role is to help stabilise the patient and provide the appropriate and potentially life saving care until the more highly skilled ambulance crew arrives on scene to take over the treatment.

Meet the Isle of Wight CFR Team.

We periodically recruit for Volunteer Community First Responders. If this is something you would like to apply to do please complete the ‘my details’ form and we will endeavour to send you an email to the address provided when we advertise next.