East of England Ambulance service welcomes responders to Hoddesdon
Monday, 05 September, 2011
left to right - Community partnership manager Steve Catley, CFR Michael Horsey, CFR Nicky Horsey and community partnership training officer Simon Marshall.
A new scheme of volunteers have been welcomed in Hoddesdon on Thursday, September, 1.
The Hoddesdon Community First Responders (CFRs) led by co-ordinator Michael Horsey, who owns a local medical company in Hoddesdon and Nicky Phillips, a sales rep for a construction company who lives in Hoddesdon have booked on duty and are ready to respond to emergency calls.
The group has already gone 'live', but with more volunteers, they could give a greater amount of cover. Simon Marshall, community partnership training officer said "The benefit of having a CFR group is that our volunteers should only be four minutes away from a call, be it that they live or work locally. This way a patient can be assessed, and treatment started, during those vital first minutes of an emergency, while an ambulance response is on its way.
EEASTs community partnership manager Steve Catley covering Hertfordshire said: "I'm so pleased to see the group up and running in Hoddesdon. CFRs provide such a good lifeline to communities, and because it's not unusual to be called to neighbours or even family members, some poignant relationships are often established. As with any voluntary group, the more members we can recruit, the more cover we can give. People can be on call for as little or as much time as they're able; what's important is that they want to contribute something worthwhile to the community of Hoddesdon in a positive
