Community First Responders volunteer their spare time to be available for selected 999 calls to help other members of the community.
Volunteers can be male or female, aged over eighteen years. They must have access to a car and be able to attend emergency calls from either their home or place of work as soon as they are received.
While a responder is on call they can continue with their normal day to day activities while in the local area, but must be ready to drop everything and attend a call should one arise.
A Community First Responder needs to be extremely reliable and trust worthy, good under pressure, able to remain calm in emergency situations, be caring when dealing with patients and have a good level of physical fitness.
Community First Responders are now playing a vital role in the emergency care. They are just ordinary members of the public who have been trained by the ambulance service to deliver life-saving skills in their local areas pending the arrival of an ambulance.
Prospective responders have to undergo a Criminal Records Bureau Check (CRB) which is carried out by the East Midlands Ambulance Service and will need to pass an informal interview.