Medical response team facing cut

Co-Responders treated more than 200 people last year

A public meeting has been called in a final attempt to save a medical co-responder service in Cornwall.

Trained firefighters are called out to medical emergencies to administer first aid before the ambulance crew arrives.

The service on the Lizard costs £30,000 a year, but no-one so far has been able to guarantee the money for 2007.

The fire brigade can no longer afford to pay for the service and funding from Kerrier Council will soon run out. Each call out costs about £100.

The South West Ambulance Services Trust has also said it does not have enough money to pay for the service.

Steve Prior, the trust's director of operations, says more than 200 people on the Lizard were helped by co-responders last year.

He said if the service vanishes, it will be replaced with volunteers known as First Responders.

The public meeting is being held in Mawgan in Meneage village hall at 1930 GMT on Friday.