“Lives at risk”: MP urges Yorkshire Ambulance Service to reconsider changes to first aid training

COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS in Holderness have criticised Yorkshire Ambulance Service for reducing their regular training sessions from monthly to bi-monthly training. According to the Hull Daily Mail a number of the volunteers active in the Holderness Community First Responders have resigned in protest.

Community First Responders are unpaid volunteers who are trained to provide life-saving aid before an ambulance crew arrives. These volunteers are first on the scene and provide emergency care to patients in the first vital minutes of a medical incident. There are currently groups in Bilton, Hedon, Hornsea, Keyingham and Roos.

Graham Stuart

Now Graham Stuart MP has taken up their case. The MP is concerned that changes to local first aid training may put lives at risk, especially in rural areas. He said: “The Yorkshire Ambulance Service is quite right to look for efficiencies and must do everything possible to deliver more for less, but I urge the trust to look again at the impact of these training reductions. In many rural areas where the response time for ambulance services can be significantly longer, it is the excellent work of Community First Responders that saves lives."

Mr Stuart added: “The reduction in training has understandably left many of these volunteers disillusioned and it is a shame that the number of volunteers across the East Riding has been dwindling as a result."

Yorkshire Ambulance Service are still recruiting volunteers to the scheme and were advertising for people in Withernsea to get involved last month and have assured that full training will be given to successful applicants.