Who and What are “Community First Responders”?
“Community First Responders (CFR’s) were set up to reach patients with time critical conditions such as heart attacks and cardiac arrest, located in rural areas, where it would be impractical/impossible to get to the patient with a normal ambulance resource within a few minutes.
When the heart stops (cardiac arrest), there is a very small window of opportunity to resolve the condition. For every minute that the heart remains stopped, the chance of survival diminishes by 10-14%. That means you only have less than a 10% chance of survival if the ambulance reaches you within the government target guideline of 8 minutes. That is where CFR’s bridge the gap.
When a ‘999’ call is received by control, they immediately dispatch the nearest CFR if one is available, and then back them up with an ambulance resource, which might be a Rapid Response Paramedic or a Dual Manned Ambulance. Because the CFR lives/works in the community, they are usually first on scene and commence patient diagnostics and treatment. The ambulance resource, which may be located at hospital, attending other patients, out of the immediate area, transporting etc will follow up and continue treatment and decide on the appropriate action for the patient. We also deal with diabetic emergencies, anaphylaxis & respiratory problems.
Although we are of major benefit to the rural areas of Tamworth, a lot of our work is within the more urban parts, due to population densities. We attend patients in all parts of the Borough of Tamworth as well as parts of the Lichfield Borough such as Fazeley, Hints, Hopwas, Drayton Bassett etc.
Our motto is “Buying Time When Seconds Count”
Keith Dawson
Group Co-ordinator & Chairman
T.A.M.E Community First Responders
Registered Charity No. 1133671
keith@tamecfr.org.uk