Meeting documents

Members received a presentation from the Station Commander Buckingham and Co-Responding regarding developing the Co-Responder partnership with South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

Members were advised that an opportunity had been identified to take a collaborative approach and assist in a new way with existing equipment and skills to make the residents of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes safer. The pilot provided a timely and proportionate response to incidents in line with corporate objectives. The Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2015 state that a community response was the way forward. Victims of cardiac arrest have a 50-70% chance of survival if defibrillated in 3-5 minutes of collapse. Currently only 2% of victims in the UK are defibrillated before arrival of the ambulance. This pilot aims to improve those statistics and was another example of improving the community response to medical emergencies.

Members were advised that following an online survey which 118 staff responded to, the following was noted:-

•           82% of staff agreed that there should be a trial to assist SCAS when attending cardiac arrest incidents;

•           82% of staff would volunteer to take part in such a trial;

•           81% of crews agreed that they had the required basic skills to make an intervention at a cardiac arrest incident before the arrival of an ambulance;

•           87% of respondents agreed that the Authority’s appliances carry the basic essential equipment required to make an intervention at a cardiac arrest incident before the arrival of an ambulance.

Members were advised that looking forward, the following could be expected this year:

A new Memorandum of Understanding with SCAS would include cardiac arrest;

A service-wide response to the most serious incidents that SCAS face - with existing skills and equipment our staff would respond to confirmed cardiac arrests on a voluntary basis. This would make the people of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes safer;

Expansion of co-responder schemes across Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes - Stations including Newport Pagnell and Gerrards Cross had put themselves forward to become co-responder stations. Watches in High Wycombe and Aylesbury had also expressed an interest;

Improved mobilisation to co-responder incidents - the Authority was looking to make improvements to the way co-responders were mobilised. SCAS were centralising the co-responder mobilising desks and the Authority was proposing to place equipment in Thames Valley Fire Control to speed up call handling and mobilisation to cardiac arrest incidents;

Enhanced and standardised equipment - the Thames Valley fire and rescue services would work with SCAS to have standardised and interchangeable equipment on all appliances.

The Immediate Emergency Care qualification - the ambitious plan was to train all fire and rescue employees to IEC standard. The five day course covers co-response, trauma care, first aid at work and much more. This would bring an assumed level of competence across the region when paramedics work with firefighters, ultimately with better patient outcomes.

The Committee were unanimous in their support of this pilot and asked that the presentation be given at the Fire Authority meeting on 8 June 2016 to all Members.

A Member asked if the Authority was part of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) trial and if there was a risk, the Chief Fire Officer advised that the Authority was not part of the NJC trial, but staff were already undertaking co-responding and this was just a further step.

The Member then asked had the Authority not started this before and had issues with the FBU and was advised that the Authority had engaged its staff and the local representative bodies to a position which was going against the FBU. The FBU National Conference was going to suggest fire and rescue services stop co-responding, which could put pressure on local rep bodies.

A Member asked how the Authority would manage operationally if only half operational staff want to participate and how would the Authority manage on call and was advised that in a rural area it was still quicker for a co-responder with a defibrillator to arrive at the scene than an ambulance. The person with the defibrillator would deal with the cardiac arrest.

The Committee requested that the presentation be given at the Fire Authority meeting on 8 June 2016 to all Members.