Concern as medical help calls cut

Co-responders say they used to be called about 200 times a month

Lives will be put at risk by plans to cut the number of times firefighters are called to help paramedics in medical emergencies, it is claimed.

Retained firefighters from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service are often called upon as co-responders to give treatment when paramedics are not near.

But the Retained Firefighters' Union said a Welsh Ambulance Service plan to restrict calls to them was "worrying".

The ambulance service said calls would be limited to life-threatening cases.

It will also call on them for road traffic accidents, it said.

The Retained Firefighters' Union (RFU) said each of the 14 fire stations involved in the co-responders scheme in mid and west Wales saves between five and 10 lives a year.

We're extremely concerned about the impact this will have on our communities Adrian Hughes, president of the RFU

It said the partnership between the two emergency services had been successful for the past 10 years.

The union said it helps provide more rapid emergency cover in rural areas where retained firefighters often live within their community.

But it claimed the cutbacks would mean lives are put at risk for the sake of saving money.

Adrian Hughes, president of the RFU, who works as a retained firefighter in Reynoldston near Swansea, said he understood the ambulance service had to pay about £90 each time a co-responder was called out.

"It seems a small price to pay for the amount of lives we can save," he said.

Hour waits

"We're extremely concerned about the impact this will have on our communities.

"We are often called to help with heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy, diabetes and people who have collapsed - all of which can be life threatening.

"Because our stations cover a wide area, we can often get to an emergency before the paramedics."

The union said its members had been told that from 4 April the Welsh Ambulance Service would be restricting the calls to them.

The RFU also claimed the ambulance service had placed a monthly cap of 60 calls - a claim which the Welsh Ambulance Service denies.

Mr Hughes said mid-way through April, co-responders in the area had already been called to deal with 50 emergencies.

In a typical month, they are called to about 200, he added.

'Panicking'

"This is such an important service. It's not uncommon for the co-responders to wait an hour for a paramedic," he said.

"There was one man who I helped while we waited for an ambulance. He had had a heart attack but we were able to give him 100% oxygen, which is a major benefit.

"He was panicking but we were able to reassure him and help guide the ambulance to him and he went to hospital for a quadruple heart by-pass.

"Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't have been there? He came up to shake my hand in a supermarket months later."

A spokesperson for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust said: "No cap has been placed on the amount of calls the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service co-responders can be asked to respond to.

"What we have however done is restrict them to Category A life-threatening emergencies and Category B road traffic collisions only.

Chief fire officer Douglas Mackay of the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service reiterated there were no plans to introduce a limit on such calls.

"We will continue to provide this valuable service in close collaboration with the Wales Ambulance Services Trust and will respond to life threatening emergencies and serious road traffic collisions as part of our role in providing community focused emergency services," he said.