Worth Valley Community First Responder Service

Whenever an emergency 999 ambulance call is made, an emergency Ambulance is immediately dispatched and a first responder is also directed to the emergency. First Responders are volunteer members of the community who are trained to respond to emergency calls through the 999 system in conjunction with the Ambulance Service. Our Responders provide immediate care to patients in the Worth Valley Ward where there may be a delay before the arrival of an ambulance. They are trained to deliver Basic Life Support and defibrillation to patients in Cardiac Arrest and appropriate calls including oxygen administration to patients suffering from a range of conditions.

All of our Responders have undergone the First Responder Training Course provided by a Cummunity Defibrillation Officer from Yorkshire Ambulance Service. The course covers:-

• Use of Automated. External. Defibrillator (AED)
• Oxygen Therapy
• Bag-Mask-Valve Resuscitation and Airway Adjuncts
• C.P.R. (Cardio. Pulmonary. Resuscitation.)
• First Aid, Patient Care & Assessment
• Recognition of cause and type of illness/injury
• Scene safety & Incident Management
• Infection Control
• Communications

When you dial 999 for an Ambulance, if you are suffering from one of the complaints below, ambulance control will contact our On Call Responder by Pager and ask them to attend as well as the emergency ambulance on its way to you. Our team covers the area of the Worth Valley Electoral Ward, although we are not strictly limited by boundary. We usually attend calls within a 5 - 10 minute drive (at normal speed). This is best represented on the map below.

Typically this means Worth Valley Community Responders provide cover to the villages of Oakworth, Stanbury, Oldfield, Haworth, Lees, Crossroads, and Oxenhope. As you can imagine, it’s a large area, and has a population of approximately 15,000.

We are working in partnership with Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, who supply our initial training, refreshes and our equipment bag, and is responsible for calling us out. We are also grateful to Haworth, Crossroads and Stanbury and Oxenhope Parish Councils, who have generously provided the initial funding for our training sessions.

We are also conscious of involving the local community, business and schools in our activities, and will be looking to expand our public relations over the coming months.

Our Responders only attend Category "A" calls - (serious, life threatening):-

▪ Unconscious and collapsed patients