Military Co-Responders 10th Anniversary Celebration
With the kind permission of Halton’s Station Commander, the Military Co-Responders held their 10th Anniversary Dinner at Halton House on Thursday 1 December 2016. The dinner was attended by 108 Co-Responders from several different Armed Forces units, with distinguished guests, Station Commander RAF Halton, Group Captain James Brayshaw, Air Commodore Alan Opie, Air Commodore Richard Maddison, Mr Philip Astle, Chief Operating Officer South Central Ambulance Service, and the Chairman of the Buckinghamshire County Council, Mrs Val Letheren.
Earlier in the day a Chinook from 27 Squadron based at RAF Odiham flew in to enable some of the Halton Co-Responders, Team Leader, Warrant Officer Jim Underhill, Deputy Team Leader, Flt Sgt Alex Bedborough, Flt Lt Claire Stanley, SAC Martina Tredgett and Co-Responder Training and Liaison Officer for the Armed Forces, Ms Amanda Cundy, to say thank you to the Armed Forces Covenant for their very generous grant of £19.6K to the Military Co-Responder scheme, which currently comprises of 274 personnel, over 11 different Armed Forces units with 16 Rapid Response Vehicles.
Jim Underhill explained about the scheme, saying: “A Military Co-Responder is a person trained to First Person on Scene (intermediate) standard who attends potentially life-threatening 999 emergencies to patients either at home, in care homes or in other public locations. The team undertakes this role on a purely voluntary basis, evenings and weekends, to supplement South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) in helping to improve clinical outcomes. They attend a myriad of different situations from cardiac arrest, strokes and choking to unconscious patients and pediatric emergencies. They were allocated to 5767 incidents last year, attending on average 367 patients per month during the 11,290 voluntary hours given to the scheme.
“The team deliver invaluable support to lots of civilian patients per year, across four counties. This support has been directly responsible for saving many lives in numerous and often challenging scenarios. The scheme supports and develops many skills sets that are directly transferrable from the Military Co-Responders role to their primary Armed Forces output. For example being able to make split second decisions in fast ever-changing situations, to improving confidence and communication skills.
“The provision of this service allows the Armed Forces to help and support the wider community encouraging enduring support to the scheme and thereby, the local civilian population, the wider Service community and also our Emergency Services colleagues. In sum I know every Co-Responder derives a lot of pride in being able to support those patients that require our help.”