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Today we donated defibs to the North East Derbyshire Community First Responders.

They are a brand new group of volunteers that has been set up and trained by key NHS/medical personnel to respond to emergency 999 calls, to provide aid for many different medical situations, including delivering life-saving intervention and defibrillation to patients in cardiac arrest.

The national target for ambulance response times for emergencies such as sudden cardiac arrest and stroke are about 8 minutes. In remote areas and at times of high demand, it can take significantly longer for emergency services to arrive.

 

This is where community first responders (CFR’s) can make a huge difference.

 

999 call handlers know which CFR’s are on duty and their location, so when a 999 call comes in, any CFR in a certain distance from that call will be sent to it. This can mean they are on scene far quicker than an ambulance and able to provide care to patients in those vital minutes before the ambulance arrives, minutes that really can make the difference between life and death.

Although initially set up with East Midlands Ambulance Service assistance, the EMAS budget won’t cover everything, so these groups are encouraged to raise funds to provide as much of their kit as possible.

They are not provided with a full set of equipment for every volunteer.

A defib is a key piece of that equipment and there aren’t enough for every CFR.

 

Not belittling the importance of the work that we do as a charity in making defibs available in cabinets, we think that donating to CFR’s will undoubtedly mean that a defib is far more likely to be used and make that critical difference, so to us it makes good sense to provide this new group with some.

 

We wish the North East Derbyshire CFR group all the best and thank them for the time and effort they are selflessly making to help our communities.

 

We'd also like to thank everyone for your continued support, you're amazing!