About

 

SLIEVE CROOB

A price a lot of us have to pay for living in the picturesque area of Slieve Croob is the limited access we have to fast response times from the emergency services in our times of most need.

By working in partnership with the NIAS, we hope that the launch of the Slieve Croob Community First Responders Scheme will go some way in helping to improve emergency first aid response times by offering our local trained volunteers to attend any of our neighbours who find themselves in a medical emergency and who are awaiting the arrival of an ambulance.

 

 

WHAT IS A FIRST RESPONDER SCHEME?

 

 

Community First Responder Schemes are made up of volunteers who live within their local community. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) alert the volunteers to specific 999 emergency calls in their area and are complementary to the NIAS (http://www.niamb.co.uk/).  Their aim is to reach a potentially life-threatening emergency in the vital first few minutes before the arrival of an ambulance crew.  They are able to provide basic emergency life support and use a defibrillator if required.  CFRs are alerted in addition to an ambulance, so an ambulance should already be on its way.

 

CHAIN OF SURVIVAL

The chance of someone surviving a cardiac arrest (when a person’s heart stops pumping blood around their body and they stop breathing normally) decreases by approximately 10% for every minute that passes without CPR.  It is vital to get basic emergency life support to the patient as quickly as possible.  CFRs who live in the area can be on scene within minutes and make a real difference before the ambulance arrives.  There are around 1500 Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrests (OHCA) in Northern Ireland per year, where resuscitation is attempted, and only 1 in 10 people are likely to survive..  Due to the rural geography of Northern Ireland, ambulance response times can be delayed, therefore there is an increasing need for local responders to provide early assessment and early intervention until advanced care arrives.  CFRs can improve the casualty’s chance of survival by utilising skills in the first three links of the Chain of Survival.  For this reason, CFRs play a vital role within their communities and sometimes can be the difference between life and death.