• When people fall ill suddenly, they often need immediate medical attention
• In more serious cases early treatment and care have been proved to enhance the patient's recovery
• For people whose heart has stopped, defibrillation can increase the chance of survival to about 60% but must be carried out quickly
• Ambulance Services always respond immediately using a special prioritising control system. However, even then, delays can still occur due to:
      * high volumes of calls
      * traffic congestion in towns
      * remote rural locations
   

Wiltshire St. John Ambulance and Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust have joined together in partnership to organise and support... Community First Responder Schemes

• We are alerted by Ambulance Control at the same time as an NHS ambulance
• We are already in the community so can often get to the patient first
• We can be there to prevent the condition from getting worse, and to reassure patients and relatives
• We are volunteers who have received high-quality, supportive training
• We provide emergency care within our community
• We aim to operate a 24-hour emergency call-out service
• We organise our own
      * on-call rotas, taking into account our own commitments
      * fundraising
      * administration (using established St. John Ambulance systems)
  
  For the protection of the potentially vulnerable people we serve, all our volunteers agree to being checked with the national Criminal Records Bureau