Community First Responders are not a substitute for an ambulance and whenever a responder is mobilised to a 999 call in the East Grinstead area an ambulance or rapid response vehicle will also have been mobilised and on their way to back up a responder. 



Because CFR's either live or work in the local area this means we can often arrive on scene within a few minutes and start giving treatment to the patient and in some cases emergency life saving treatment can be initiated.



Our responders either live or work in the local area and can continue with normal daily activity until an alert is received via a responder mobile telephone. We use our own vehicles to respond to incidents and we are not exempt from the road traffic laws and so we respond to calls under normal road conditions, because we are normally local to the incident, we do not require blue lights and sirens.



Upon arrival on scene we are trained to commence first aid treatment depending on the type of call we have been dispatched to. Once the ambulance arrives we hand over our patient to the attending crew and are then made available to respond to more 999 calls.



We meet on a monthly basis for refresher training and group discussions. We are also required to complete a re assessment annually so that we remain trained to respond to 999 calls.



Take a look at the equipment we use on the "our equipment" section of this website.